Quote: On the Power of the Mind – Marcus Aurelius

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

– Marcus Aurelius

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Look who’s back: George Ezra’s newest album, Staying At Tamara’s

Five years. Five freaking years I’ve waited for this.

The past few days found me in a state of periodic temporary despair. I’m doing better today but what made it even better was George Ezra’s and Troye Sivan’s upcoming releases. If you follow George you’d have seen a teaser for the first featured song as well as his #AskGeorgeEzra session.

#AskGeorgeEzra on Twitter

.@TheJenLopez #AskGeorgeEzra pic.twitter.com/VlB6w6fjq2

— George E Z R A (@george_ezra) January 19, 2018

Wanted on Voyage is a bloody work of art, you can fight me on this. I’ve listened to it about twenty times and I’ll do it again because it’s that good. Budapest was the first song of his I’ve heard, it was back when iTunes was promoting new artists by letting people download a new song each week, but I hope I’d have found him even if that weren’t the case. It was massive surprise the first time I saw him, I most certainly didn’t match that heavy voice with the guy.

Here’s a lyric video (unofficial) of his latest song, Paradise.

It’s lyrically straightforward, lighthearted and simply lovely. Vocally, rhythmically and beat-wise? It’s …

Quote: On Optimism

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

– Helen Keller

Quote: On Knowlegde

“The surest way of concealing from others the boundaries of one’s own knowledge is not to overstep them.”
― Giacomo Leopardi

An open letter to a stranger

This is a bit long and contains some profanity. I implore you to read it though, it’s sincerely meant and for all to read.

Hey, how are you?

I’m writing from my desk when I could be, arguably, doing more important things. However, I believe that this may be one of the most crucial things I ever could do … writing this letter to you.

I remember becoming excruciatingly aware of the passage of time a couple of years ago but none has rivaled the year that was 2016. I could bitch about it to no end, about the mistakes I made and how increasingly small I feel in this yawning old world that knows how to squeeze happiness out of a soul as much as it knows how to inspire an all-consuming will to live simply by existing in all its majestic beauty.

Sounds really poetic, doesn’t it? You know, poetry isn’t all pretentiousness, not all the time anyway. It’s the insincere assholes with some underhand agenda and something to prove that spew nonsensical drivel, giving the rest of us a bad name.

What did you learn from the past year? Did you pet many dogs? Got braces?  Did you get that promotion you toiled after? Or did that jerk with the broad white smile grin his way into the spot?

I hope you quit smoking, if not I’m tempted to send you what a smoker’s internal body cavity looks like. Yeah, go on looking disgusted and fed up with the well-meaning but unsolicited advice. It’s just … I want you to know that somebody out there cares.

I’m sorry that your brother/sister/mother/father died. I mean, I wouldn’t have known them personally but that new absence is a black hole in the fabric of your reality and I know that shit isn’t light, yeah? I remember when my grandad died three years ago, at the viewing before we took his empty vessel to the burial ground to be cremated into the open air … one of my grand-uncles told me to be strong. What he meant was “don’t cry”.

What the actual fuck even? I’ll tell you what I did. I cried. I cried because I don’t flow with that stoic shit. Because my grandfather was one of the most important people in my life and I hardly knew him. Even when I’d lived with him up until that last day. I did know that alcoholism screwed up what could have been a more promising life past his post in the riot squad.

But that was sixty years ago. The man I knew suffered withdrawal from the bottle, pissed and full of vinegar one day, and peaceful and jovial the next. He evened out eventually, but then came the mild assault of Alzheimer’s and the more prevalent Parkinsons that got worse after his fall. I laugh a little because the man could still quote Shakespeare off his head. He was a decent human being that made mistakes and paid for them. We moved on and lived as best as we could, but looking back today it was a half-life and the waste was mine. It was all of ours.

So when I was told to be strong …