Tag: Creativity

Truly Twisted

by Ebb Then Flood

IMG_3001 (2).JPG

Twisted things get a bad rap mostly.

If you twist the truth, you lie, and that is not generally a good thing.

Except we often don’t want to call a lie out for what it is sometimes.

So a liar ‘gilds the lily’, is ‘economic with the truth’ or just ‘a little disingenuous.’

A twist on a twist, as it were.

Snakes are twisty, sorta unloved and often deadly.

Actual twisters are beautiful , but wreak havoc and destruction in their paths.

‘Twists of fate’ are random and unpredictable.

Truth is ,we are all twisted in some way.

Biologically. Socially. Environmentally. Psychologically. Intellectually.

That just comes with being human.

However, being twisted does not prevent a spiral staircase; a double helix; a rope; or a vine, being purposeful, strong and creative.

I’ll leave it to you to add your own twist to things…

Boxed In

by Ebb Then Flood

20191001_090457 (2).jpg

My fourteen year old daughter took this photo of her old man in one of London’s iconic red telephone boxes.

I do look just a little trapped!

We do it to others; we do it to ourselves mostly.

Put them, us, into boxes of our design.

Labels are for jars, and boxes, well,  boxes are the caskets that we will go out in.

Pigeonholing and stereotyping behaviours kill the hope of the different and the unique.

In venturing into blogging , I am trying to think outside of a box I have spent years carefully constructing.

In expressing my creative side, I bury the negative self-thought (and perhaps the thought of others), that tells me that is not what I am, or do.

That final box can wait for now; I have a few more I need to tick…

 

 

 

Endless Sleep And The Jazz Cat

by Ebb Then Flood

IMG_0467 (2)

“Cats have it all – admiration, endless sleep and company only when they want it”

   – Rod McKuen

It’s August ,and being a Leo myself, it’s feline time.

Pictured is our, now sadly gone, family cat Mingus (named for the Afro-American jazz great Charles Mingus), who was an excellent sleeper but great company too when he actually woke (and wanted it).

I was even suckered into this admiring shot while he slept in the sun…damn!

A very idiosyncratic beast he was. Preferred human food over cat food and could sense when someone was sick, and stay close by. Liked music.He was a La Perm breed (aka the “Alpaca Cat”); had unusual wool-like fur that would freak people out a bit when touching it.

A story about the cat and his name: I watched the 1968 black and white documentary on Mingus (the jazz one) with a friend in London. In the doco, Charlie wanders around his New York loft muttering random stuff and at one point fires a loaded rifle into the ceiling, bringing down paint and dust. Just a little unhinged, really. Years later we had just got Mingus (the feline), and I told my friend his name over the phone. He asked whether he was black. I said, no, just slightly crazy..

Ok, done.This blog’s sole cat meme is officially out of the way…

Art Ascending

by Ebb Then Flood

 “Art, when inspired with love, leads to higher realms”

 – Baba Meher

Two community art gallery stairways, in NZ’s Nelson (left) and Taumaranui (right), echo the above quote.

You can feel the love and passion transforming humble carpentry.

Stairs inviting you upwards with rainbow colours to discover more artful wonder.

Which is what inspired art does, I suppose – takes you out of yourself and beyond.

I fumble around with this blog, and I don’t really know  what qualifies as ‘good’ art ,but I have come to learn that the act of creating something that is real to me has actually taken me ‘beyond’. The creativity of others (bloggers like you included!) inspires that journey too.

Onwards and upwards!

 

 

So Many Books…

by Ebb Then Flood

20190611_151655

     “So many books, so little time.”

       – Frank Zappa

I  really find it hard to imagine Zappa actually sitting down with a book given his massive, sprawling musical career, but he must have – how else to explain the inspirations behind the often surreal songs? Or maybe he was lamenting the fact that his creative endeavours meant he couldn’t read everything he wanted to.

I know the feeling – my bedside table has a stack of half-read tomes and the shelves have many others I have been meaning to read or re-read. Frustrating!

Last night watched an episode of the new series “Catch-22” and realized that it was over thirty years ago that I read the amazing book by Joseph Heller (I bet Zappa read it too), and I had always meant to pick it up again. Time flying by…

Yet I know that the time and energy spent reading a book that miraculously seems meant for me, is a luxury that a time-poor person finds rewarded .Even if  it takes a while for me to get to the end, the journey of exploration through others’ words and worlds on the way there is nothing short of amazing.

I could extend that to blogs as well. So inspiring to see other writers and bloggers frame things I may not even have heard or thought of and give of themselves in the process.

Find time…