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[fromblyth]

[fromblyth]

Janet Fish, Peaches, 1971. Pastel on paper.

[fromblyth]

25.03.20. In just under 4 months I have completed a 2nd journal. I’m proud of some of my work, other bits I think need work. I can’t wait to start the next one!

[fromblyth]

[fromblyth]

13.03.20. At my local newsagents: How bleak is this? Strange times we’re living in and they just get stranger and stranger.

[fromblyth]

Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell with a Humphrey Sutton cover.

[fromblyth]

[fromblyth]

Poster for “Killer of Sheep” - 1977 by Charles Burnett.

[fromblyth]

To Sleep with Anger (1990), dir. Charles Burnett

[fromblyth]

[fromblyth]

I’ve given this Jay Electronica record a few listens today and I’m very impressed! Best Hip-Hop record of 2020 (so far) and it’ll be hard to top. This one is for the culture! 

"A Written Testimony"

Jay Electronica

[fromblyth]

27th February 2020. Cemetery walks bring me peace and perspective.

[fromblyth]

A Brief Introduction

I'm not sure how to write this first post. Or how any of this works.

For the past year now I have written more than I ever have before. I have very recently returned from 9 months living in Australia, where I finished two whole journals, full of my thoughts & experiences whilst there. I'm still writing every single day. Some days I think "This is really great." and others not so much. I've made it a priority to write regardless of how I feel or how little I'm up to. The writing process has become detrimental to my mental health over this past year. It's a very comforting thing to have my journals to confide in and I've often managed to tap into my creativity for the first time in years. I've wanted to do a blog like this for a while where I upload those same pieces and hopefully get some feedback on them. It seems odd that I've poured my soul into those journals and I've never let anybody see whats inside them.

What I'm doing at the moment

I'm back home in England and I'm living with my sister and her family in Surrey, which is about a 40 minute train journey from Central London. I'm now in the process of waiting for a D.B.S (police check) so I can restart my old job at the care home that I previously worked 2 years at before my recent travels. At the moment my days are consisting of listening to multiple albums, playing indecent amounts of Football Manager 2020, writing in my journal and drinking countless cups of tea. Its okay at the moment but I feel lost without work, almost purposeless sometimes. I've come to realise that feeling like that is just part of life and you've got to find ways to appreciate the mundane because lets face it, there's a lot of it!

Music

I consider my main passion in life to be music. I didn't grow up around music and truthfully didn't have even the slightest interest in it until I was about 14. Nowadays I try to listen to a vast range of material from all genres and expand my knowledge as much as I possibly can. My interest initially started with Hip-Hop/Rap when I was in secondary school and for a while I listened almost exclusively to that genre. I loved the idea of these amazing artists growing up in often volatile environments and elegantly telling their stories through their music with such profound wisdom and clarity. I still love it. Hip-Hop music and culture is massively important to me and I always do my best to make sure I'm up-to-date with new records.

A few years ago I bought this book called '1001 Albums to Listen to Before You Die' and I've sifted through that at a comfortable pace. I love talking about music with others and even have a bit of a hobby of writing album reviews from time-to-time. Its something I will eventually do on this Blog as well as interviews with up-and-coming artists. I'd just like to speak with them about their love for music, what got them interested in it and where they see themselves taking it. That stuff really interests me.

What is the purpose of this Blog?

If I'm honest, I'm really not too sure what I want it to be or even what I want it to look like. I'd like to upload excerpts from my journals and get feedback on them as pieces of writing, hopefully gaining a small audience of viewers. I think that one of the next steps in improving my writing skills will be for me to receive some constructive criticism.

Who am I?

I'll go by 'From Blyth' on here for privacy reasons. I'm a 22-year-old guy originally from Blyth, Northumberland in the North-East of England (Hence my Blog name) I moved down to Surrey in the South of England when I was 6 when my parents got divorced and have been here ever since. I'm a care assistant in a residential care home for the elderly, a job which I really enjoy for the most part. I've recently gotten the bug for travelling after my 9 month stint living in Australia, which was the furthest that I've ever been from home. Truthfully I'm wanting to travel again ASAP, whether its back to the land Down Under or a weekend trip to Kraków, I'm up for more-or-less any destination on the map. I love seeing new things and having new experiences as often as possible.

Thank you for reading!

- From Blyth