It’s World Mental Health Day today. No, don’t shut the screen. This is going to be interesting. In fact, I promise if you get bored at any point you can have a free trip to Dubai flying Emirates. (I’ve recently developed a habit of compulsive lying) Mental health organisations the world over are producing posters … Continue reading »
Category Archives: music
Only the wind
The storms created in the mind by a seriously life upheaval like a relationship breakup, argument with a family member, or an impending major decision overshadow anything that nature can throw at us. The lazy critical comparisons between the new Pet Shop Boys album “Elysium” and their much-loved 1990 album “Behaviour” caused me to revisit … Continue reading »
gay / mental illness / mindfulness / music / relationships / wellbeing
Pet Shop Boys Elysium – a vision of heaven
As a long-time Pet Shop Boys fan, I can still remember the excitement that came with the release of a new album when I was a teenager. No-one else I knew liked them, and the fact that I did was another thing for me to be bullied about. It didn’t matter. Their electronic landscapes, and … Continue reading »
bereavement / media / music / psychology / religion / wellbeing
Even birds have funerals
In some religions, it is written that God gave us “dominion” over the Earth and all its creatures, as if we were created specially. The implicit suggestion is that we aren’t connected to other living things, except as their masters. They are there to be exploited, be it shot in the wild or picked out … Continue reading »
anxiety / depression / exercise / medication / mental illness / mindfulness / music / wellbeing
Running in the rain
It was just after midday when the anger hit me. I’d been to see my counselor Lyndon that morning, and we’d been talking a lot about endings. I’m in a transitionary phase of my life at the moment, with a lot of changes. Lyndon asked me how I dealt with endings. I didn’t describe it … Continue reading »
A red letter day
I can’t remember where I was when I heard that my first record had reached number one, but I can remember exactly where I was when I was told that it managed to hold the spot for a second week. I was an excited 20-year-old, holed up in the unbelievably modest offices of Universal Music … Continue reading »
6 reasons to enter Strangeland
As a man who lives his life in a mental landscape dotted with boulders of isolation, longing, resignation and the occasional scattering of hope, it’s rather fitting that I’m a fan of the British band Keane. Their music contains elements of all the above, and like any music that matches your temperament, it can be … Continue reading »
depression / gay / gay bear / mental illness / mindfulness / music / retro / wellbeing
Walkin’ after midnight
I felt alone, in a place where I shouldn’t be. I know any number of people at the other end of a phone line. But I kept walking, just hoping that whatever I was looking for would be out there searching for me as well. Continue reading »
Recover your groove
I love records. I grew up with them, even though many of my generation had already moved onto cassettes, and the richer families around us progressed quickly to CDs. I first fell in love with music that had been committed to vinyl, notably the Olivia Newton-John album pictured above which I was totally obsessed with … Continue reading »
bear / depression / flourishing / gay / gay bear / music / relationships
The importance of teddy bears
I’m quite sentimental over teddy bears, to the point where an event involving them even brought me back inside a church. Continue reading »
