20.12.12

DEC/20/12 - The End Is Nigh








Before I go any further I want to just mention Steve M Hammet's exhibition at U.R.B.A.N. Steve's exhibition will be the last in this amazing building that has fed and nurtured the arts scene in Newport over the past two years.

Steve has had his doors opened at U.R.B.A.N 21-22 John Frost Square, Newport, for over a week now and if you haven't popped in you've missed out on; Angel's, Jelly Fish, some fantastic painting and sculpture work by local artists, instillation, a playable mannequin fitted with cello strings, laser trickery, live sitar performance and  a chat with the man who made it all come together. A very good experience. I've posted some photo's below.

Thursday the 20th is the last day! So make sure if you want to pop along you do it before then... Besides which...







The End Is Nigh!

So tomorrow we should tell those people we love that we love them just one last time, because if those bloody Mayans turn out to be master of fortune in 24 hours we're doomed to be ashes and dust.

But I'm not panicing.

But today I have pondered the idea of the end "being nigh", as my 2 hour train journey turned into a 4 hour train journey, please, please, please don't ask.

I've been visiting my girlfriend at her parents house in Stourbridge for a few days and today I had to make my merry way back to Newport as work, nature and Dan Rowley called.

After my exhausting train journey back (which consisted of four changes, two mars bars, one old lady elbow to my stomach, a conversation with a semi-literate train conductor and a panic over a lost *not lost just behind the vending machine bag) I played a game of squash with Dan, partly because I felt obliged as he booked the court four days ago and has practically called me every day since to check I'm still up for it, and partly because being trounced in squash by Dan has become one of my favourite ways to relieve stress. I've never beat him, today I came very close, but that was post smashing him the face with the squash ball, which would of hardly seemed like a victory anyway. Afterwards I came home and pondered the idea further.

Thinking about the end being nigh does two things to me;

1. It makes me think of all the opportunities I've missed out on in the past (the ones I definetly know about and the ones that remained invisible)

2. It makes me wonder what's being cut short. What might I achieve? What might I become? What might I do/see/be part of/hear/feel/sense/accomplish/conquer/fail and do I really make the most of all those opportunities presented to me.

Lets be honest, we all think about this every time New Year roles around. We sit and drink and eat and say what we're going to do or change or stop or achieve or resolve, but do we ever actually do it? I know I still smoke occasionally and I haven't seen the inside of a gym since 2010, I definitely haven't written that novel I just know is deep down inside of me. Every year we promise ourselves a better life in the year to come. We talk ourselves into believing we can be better, but come the end of January we've settled back into being our regular good-old selves...

Well, according to the Mayans next year isn't supposed to be here. We are not supposed to be alive after Friday 21st December 2012. By Saturday the 22nd Earth will have become a cold desolate hole which will have been destroyed by some almighty force of nature/God/alien, so if we are here why don't we perform an exercise in "practised-anticipated-destruction" or as I like to call PAD. Let's pretend (it's fun to pretend) that we're all doomed to expire some time relatively soon, and in knowing this, let's think about what we'd do...

This has inspired me to make a gift for George and Antonio which I hope will go some small way to making them "seize" more moments. I've also made one for my beauts girlfriend the K.Goodenough and I'll keep you updated with a) whether or not she's actually using and b) what the consequences of her using it are (that sounds totally different to what it actually is... You'll see...) and George and Antonio can do their own posting and storytelling and explaining right here on this Blog... Although I'm pretty sure when I ask Antonio if he'll do a Blog he's relatively certain that means something you do  on some mans chest in a hotel room in Kabukicho... I'll have another go at firing him up to Blog!

If you'd all like this gift all you need to do is read this BLOG on the 1st of every month for a year of PAD! Don't forget you can sign up for email notifications to be alerted every time we Blog and if you're up for the PAD CHALLENGE then great! You can follow our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook from this very Blog page and you can also do fun stuff like answer our peculiar questionnaire  on the side of this page.

Mucho love,

Justin


No comments:

Post a Comment