How could I fail to be inspired so hotly said (Mervyn Peake)

My life was empty, forever on a down, until you took me, showed me around. My life is free now, my life is clear.*

Love and peace - Wozza

btw - the pebble from Rishikesh is courtesy of Paul and Christine Ryan and * is from Sweetleaf by Black Sabbath.

Hear that? It's the cosmic rays. I -- I warned you about 'em.

Fascinations (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 8 part 1 - print media)

Fascination moves

Sweeping near me

Still I take you

Fascination

Sho nuff

Takes a part of me

David Bowie - Fascination

Are other people's lives built on their fascinations to the extent that mine has been? Mmm, I think so.

Some would say 'obsessions' rather than fascinations. You've made your way past the music chapter so you have a glimpse into this aspect of my character.

As a baby boomer, I am a child of the media, of the analogue variety, but still media! I don't remember a pre television era. Radio was still important (Goon Show, Sunday morning requests) but TV, even though it was black and white, with one channel and only on for a limited number of hours, was the medium.

I love low art, pop culture, with some appreciation of high art thrown in for good measure. However, it is pop culture mores than I am most comfortable with. I would much rather visit something like McDonalds or IHOP than eat at a pretentious, trendy, over priced restaurant.

One of my earliest fascinations was for comics. My collection of comics grew to such an extent that my bed almost levitated off the sixties multi-coloured swirling carpet in my Korma Road bedroom thanks to all of the comics stashed underneath it.

Look and Learn had two sections that I collected with obsessive zeal. One was a western featuring yer typical Clint Eastwood style inscrutable cowboy; the second was a bizarre futuristic story about a group of Roman soldier types. In many ways it was the precursor to Star Wars and its 'long ago and far away' setting. Called The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, it was the product of inspired work by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence.

From there it was an easy progression to Marvel and DC comics. Three Royal Oak news agents stocked these and I became a slavish follower of Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, Sgt Rock, Thor and Tarzan of the Apes in particular.

Something about Spiderman's nerdish Peter Parker, and the weird combination of powers in The Fantastic Four made them my clear favourites.

Obviously, all this was in the days way before any specialist comic shops (I love the one in the Cuba Mall in Wellington). If you missed a weekly delivery of comics you were sunk. So regular trips to those shops on my bike, was needed. 

My completist compulsion stems from this, I think. It would drive me crazy if my sequence of comics was interrupted. Still does if I miss a Mojo magazine for any reason.

Our next door neighbour who lived at 20 Korma Ave had a grandson who visited her on the weekend (same ritual we had with our grandparents obviously) and we'd play catch and swap comics, as you did in those innocent days.

Eventually the collection became too much and mum made me sell them all. That hurt man!

Last year I shelled out $1,000 for the complete set of Trigan Empire comics. I had to, I just did. I loved reconnecting with my past, and while the thrill I had reading these as a pre-teen was impossible to recapture, I loved having the COMPLETE set!

Alongside the comics, sat books!

If I didn't have my nose in a comic, it was in a book. 

Basically, the same regime I outlined for collecting music held true for books (once I found an author I liked, I'd backtrack and read all I could by them).

It started with things from local libraries like Swallows and Amazons, or books from my parents' collection (Desmond Bagley, Alistair MacLean), or else I'd buy them (Sven Hassel war books, Tolkien, Conan the Barbarian series by Robert E. Howard). I always had a book going.

Nothing much has changed, either. 

Sitting on my coffee table right now, in A.R.T., are a pile of books to read - a The Fantastic Four compendium from Marvel, a Hunter Davies book on Beatle lyrics, three other Beatle or Lennon related books and Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky.

And, I'm still a completist with authors I love - Haruki Murakami, William Goldman, Robert Fulghum, Nick Hornby, Robert M. Pirsig (best book I've ever read - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance).

The final piece of the written media fascination is poetry. I have always loved writing my own poetry and reading the words of Patti Smith, Robert Bly, Allen Ginsberg, Walt Whitman, Hone Tuwhare, A.R.D. Fairburn, and especially William Wordsworth. They have always connected with my own sensibilities.

I'm very aware that this part of my autobiography has been almost exclusively male-centric. Although I've read and studied a lot of novels and poetry written by women, and enjoyed female writers like Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Katherine Mansfield, they don't speak to me like the writers I'm mentioned during this chapter, who, it just so happens, are male. 

Sorry, but there it is.

Love and peace - Wozza

Update 32 and Inspiration 5

Hey everyone - it's been a funny old week (and a half) with not a lot of obvious highlights. But I suppose that's to be expected in a week where one of my teachers is arrested and charged with three counts of indecent assault on two of my students! I hope you weren't drinking a cup of coffee while reading that - it's probably all over the screen now! Why can I tell you that? Because he didn't get name suppression, nor did my school so if you google Stratford High School these days you'll get a news report I'm sure. This'll explain why the update's a tad delayed too - I've been otherwise preoccupied!

Anyway here I am finally...obviously it's been a testing week but there were highlights - Jacky and I visited Orewa last weekend and saw dad, Ross and the rest of the northern Purdys, as well as Adam and Keegan in Hamilton. Jade got some replacement cats for Ellie from the SPCA (names - Squeeze and Soda), fathers' day was the best ever - Jade gave me the boxed set of Seinfeld season 8, Samantha rang and the boys gave me CDs. Wahoo. Adam's two CDs were of him playing all the instruments and pretty snazzy it is too. Keegan's were of the Mats Morgan Band and Naked City. They were great too. Clearly both outfits are Zappa devotees of the Hot Rats era. Me too! In sport - Arsenal had a great win 4-0 at Blackburn then 3-1 away at Bolton; Manchester United (aka the scum) Spurs (aka old scum) both lost last weekend. Double wahey!! The All Blacks beat the aussies to take both the Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations. I'm never that bothered with the tri-nations thing but I'd hate it if we lost the Bledisloe (for the puzzled - this is the annual competition between Australia and NZ). As for music - while in Auckland I visited Real Groovy and picked up some Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater CDs.

Nature watch: two more lambs born healthy yesterday but three lambs (triplets) didn't make it last week unfortunately. The weather is starting to get milder with less rain and the grass is shooting away. It's light now until after 6pm.


Inspiration time and boy did I need it this week. My inspiration for this post is ESCAPISM. Ever since I was young boy I played that silver ba...ahem...ever since I can remember I've escaped! For a start it was sport, books and comics, then TV and radio as well as sports, books and comics, then from about 1970 onwards increasingly it's been through film and music and yes I really am that shallow. At this stage of my life it's Seinfeld, Dream Theater, blogging and currently I'm reading Edward Rutherfurd's 'London'. 700 pages down and a hundred to go.

I've just had a think about things and realise that (duh) escapism isn't inspirational, it's...um..escapism. While the above thoughts stand - Spiderman, Seinfeld etc don't exactly inspire me. I love them but I don't aspire to have spidey like powers or do stand-up. But music does continue to inspire me so instead I'll go with a picture of Lennon for the gallery on the left. The inspired bit comes from his example (of soul laid bare honesty, humanity, and coruscating talent). The luminous talent comes out obviously in his songs. Top 3 - 'Don't let me down' (as you know), 'Across the universe', and 'Yer blues'.



I'll also name check as inspirations my favourite writers - William Goldman (on the right) and Nick Hornby. I've still only ever written one fan letter in my life and it was some years ago and it was sent to William Goldman. His screenplays are great (Butch Cassidy, All the President's Men, Princess Bride and many more) but I love his novels and non-fiction books ever more. The amazing 'Adventures in the Screen Trade' and 'The Colour of Light' are worth seeking out. For Nick Hornby it was like finding my long lost twin brother- he was also born 1957, also is an Arsenal obsessive and also was an English teacher (okay that's where similarities end but you get the drift). He also writes like a dream. I read his stuff and instantly both get it and wish I'd written it. Give his blog (on the left) a try and you'll see what I mean. 'Fever Pitch' is in my top 5 all time and his 'About a Boy' was a great book and outrageously an even better film!!

Okay - it's Monday - another day in paradise. Have a good 'un, we have two weeks holiday coming after this week - that should fire me up!

Love and peace out - W