Author Archives: alvaadmin

london lately: sunday roast

i think sunday roast is the best british tradition. roast chicken, potatoes, shredded beets, peas, carrots, turnip mash covered in carmellized leeks and GRAVY served with the doughy goodness of yorkshire pudding (a yeast pop-over). the crown & goose is one of our favorite local pubs, close to our flat with a super cozy vibe. you have to book here on sundays – no walk-in tables will be free. it’s totally worth it though.

there is only the trying

 

I’ve had one of those weeks where I’ve been staring at the piano. I am trying to clock my 40 hours each week, but I had to coax myself away from a performance review. I can become a person that has to tick all the boxes and get everything perfect. But the songs I create from that place are just shit, so I came away from the piano (even though it’s beautiful & new), looking for a reset and picked up Eliot’s Four Quartets again.

I was reminded that my sitting down every day is another attempt, a new beginning. But it has to be more than just staring at the piano, praying to the muses for a rhyme. I must wrangle my past, dust off some shabby words and begin the eternal task of saying the thing I’ll never really be able to say. Because every song, every hour clocked is “a different kind of failure” — it’s already been said. But, as Eliot says: “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”

Excerpt from “East Coker” by T. S. Eliot - read the whole poem here 

“Wild Grape” by American artist ELLSWORTH KELLY (image)/ fascinating interview with him here where I felt echoes of Eliot and my thoughts on work & accomplishment

What do you think? How do you keep working when you like it’s all been done before? How do you reset?

golden globes

i didn’t get to watch the show – it doesn’t air in the uk. but i always look at the dresses online and talk to my best friend about our favorites. here are are mine.

who were your favorites?

any misses?  i wasn’t feeling taylor swift’s square neckline jessica mcclintock. 1998 is vintage? maybe for her.

 

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