Two of my favourite creative inspirations on the same tape – Hunter S. Thompson, writer and gonzo journalist, and Studs Terkel, oral historian and broadcaster.
This is Studs interviewing Hunter about his break out book Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs:
“If you’re not talking large numbers, what’s the point.” – paraphrasing Jay-z
I think I may have made the damn near perfect cup of coffee this morning.
I love Hunter S. Thompson’s flow. I don’t want to ape his style, but would like to adopt his flow. His wordplay is tight, verb-centric and concise. His use of language is untamed and mad (at least in his earlier work like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Generation of Swine). If I could learn to tell stories like him, I’d be happy. It’s funny though, when you listen to him on tape (I have the CD boxset (remember those) of his recordings) he sounds like a babbling buffoon. Maybe that’s why he was a writer and not an orator.
I spent the a day in a suit working with suits of the lawyer variety.
For lunch, I usually walk over to Costa Coffee. I like the small setting tuck away at the top of Next. I’ve come here so often that all the staff know my order and in what order I take things. I start off with a ham and cheese panini, lightly salted potato chips, and a juicy water drink. The staff know that I don’t like hot drinks with my meal. They know to hook me up with a large black coffee after I’ve finished the sandwich. As much as I moan about routine, there are some benefits.
Oh and while I was in Costa I composed this draft poem:
I’m dying for life.
I’m dying for a life
sitting here in this cafe
on an autumn afternoon.
Juice water
Raspberries and apples
“All you have to do is walk
out the door into life,” a friend said.
But I’m frightened.
I’m frightened of what I’ve become.
I’m frightened of what I can become.
—
I’m a bit miffed right now. I can’t find my Apple Airpods. I’ve checked the pockets of the trousers I wore yesterday and today and nothing. I’m trying to be all Zen about you know the old ‘if you break your favourite tea cup, you can be sad about or you can forget about and move on, either way the tea cup is still gone.’ As true as that is, it’s not helping me much at the moment.
The Airpods are a cool piece of tech. They are lightweight, sound good, and you can tell your phone to do things for you. I think Airpods bring me another step closer to the sci fi world of my youth. Of course, the sinister part of this is we’re probably not too far off of becoming part person, part machine.
As we join the machine world, the machine world joins us. You’re probably starting to see a lot of these floating bout the Internet:
Snapchat released the 3D Bitmoji. Btw if you like playing on Snapchat, I’m there too. Hit me up.
Oh and I’ve just noticed iOS 11 is available. I saw a demo of it a couple of months back and it looks like it will take the iPad closer to being a laptop replacement for me.
I have a bucket load of stuff to do and I’m running out night time. So I’ll call it quits here.
Soundtrack: