Beyond the dip
Greetings
Every year, around this time, I go through a bit of a dip. Client work is usually in full swing (and pays the bills) and the energy and motivation to keep pushing with personal projects is waning. Even when I have the time, getting into any type of rhythm with the personal stuff seems so much harder.
It has been three years since my book Listen To Your Footsteps was published and I have procrastinated on starting something new for at least two years now. Even just deciding on what a new writing project will look like has been difficult. Do I finally work on another poetry collection (my last was in 2005)? Short stories? A collection of essays? Or perhaps work on another podcast? I have concepts for at least two more.
Chatting to an artist and actor friend recently, he shared how he finds that when he is collaborating with others, the drive to actually get stuff done is easier.
Sometimes my problem is in spending all my time reading about how to deal with a challenge that I am having instead of getting up off my behind and doing but there is value in reading, methinks. One Plus One Equals Three: The Power of Collaboration In The Creative Industry. I am also keeping this quote from Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act: A Way of Being top of mind:
“Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice
or you’re not.
It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it.
It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.”
You are either living as a monk or you’re not.
We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output.
The real work of the artist
is a way of being in the world.”
Although I read the book recently, it is one that I go back to often.
Over the last couple of years, I have been working to be healthier. Going to gym. Seeing a chiropractor regularly. Massages. Cupping. Sleep. I’m currently reading Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.
It puts a lot into perspective including a conversation I had some years back with Dr Ela Manga when I still had a radio show on Kaya FM on Breath-Informed Integrative Medicine and the book she wrote on Breathwork.
In the latest podcast episode, I chatted to Dylan Lloyd who is, amongst others, a production designer and art director who has worked on multiple excellent South African productions including Shaka iLembe, Isibaya, Zone 14, and The Road. We talked about his journey to get where he is today, fatherhood, grief, etc.
As a child, one of my favourite records (vinyl, for the younger ones) to play from my father’s collection (which is now my collection) was Fela Kuti’s Shakara. The sleeve has actually fallen completely apart so I had to get a nondescript sleeve for the record. I have watched Seun Kuti’s journey from afar, dipping in and out of his music. Passing It On. Seun Kuti - Afrobeat’s Upholder shares a bit of that journey and how he picked up the baton from his father.
In a way, I came to writing via music, hip hop in particular. I subscribed to all the hip hop/music magazines like Vibe, XXL, The Source, Rap Pages, etc and eventually found the work of people like dream hampton, Nelson George, Mark Anthony Neal, Greg Tate, Kevin Powell, and the like. Hip hop journalism titans: 50 influential writers who shaped the genre’s narrative. From when I started blogging in the early 2000s, I was on a quest to be a better music writer. I even did an online songwriting course in the hope that it would help. In an upcoming episode of my podcast with a musician, I asked about their thoughts on music criticism in South Africa specifically but it feels like it’s suffering everywhere as explored in The State of Music Criticism.
I’ve been known to listen to everything from heavy metal and house to R&B, jazz and rap, when at the gym. This week, I randomly came across this DJ Mix from Father of Cain (I had never heard of him and took a chance because of his name) and it is banging. The way he blends old school rap with old school house was perfect for my workout.
I have recently become a member of both the South African Podcasters Guild and the Association of African Podcasters and Voice Artists. Listen To Your Footsteps podcast has been nominated in the Career and Entrepreneurship category of the APVA Awards and SAPG is also holding its first awards this year. They are both great spaces if you want to get into African and South African podcasts.
That’s it for today. Please share, subscribe and/or comment.
Easy
Kojo