Some things in life are just unavoidable. “Death and Taxes” is a widely held truism but only the former is natural the other we created. I’m trying to sort out the latter and in the process taking care of other things that have been relegated to the “deal with it later” category. 

  
Got an invitation to have a few pints in Manchester Friday night and decided to go for it. This weeks been one of those weeks and a few cold ones in random locations serves me well. It gave me a chance to unload verbiage share some stories and experience something new again. Mark, I suspect, enjoys these every once in a while chats. He’s had a long week too and being of a similar age we can talk about things that we experienced and how we feel about them now. He was a bit older having kids so talking with him gives me confidence in moving forward with Ba(r)be in this respect. The north quarter is plastered in street art. It is a feast for the eyes and we imbibe each drink in a new location. There was a rustic hip little pub with an acoustic guitarist playing soulful reggae covers as well as other compositions. Since the place is so small the plants were plastic but still had the effect of it feeling like a garden. There was the tough dark cocktail bar serving candaian beer in a bottle, nothing on tap. The bartender whipping up fancy drinks flaming the passion fruit with a flame thrower. I was searched on my way in. I haven’t been home in two days. Ain’t exactly traveling light. 

  
As the night proceeded we made plans to do it again in about a month. It’s something to look forward to. Something that helps mark my time here. It’s been said that music is the silence between the noise and that life happens between events. In many respects this notion of rhythm and by extension cycles has a great allegorical appeal. If life has no rhythm it may not make sweet music a symphony an overture to what may be. 

  
There was this man who waddled onto the train breathing heavily and sitting down in from of me. He was looking at the girls or young ladies sitting at a table just a few rows ahead. They were chatting loudly amongst themselves, one was on a phone relaying their arrival time and gossip. The others did what young ladies do these days posed for selfies. The man interjected some lines until somehow he managed to pose with them in one of those selfies. Then they started to ignore him but he kept trying and when they got off the train they waved goodbye to him from outside the train giggling as they walked off. 

  
There is a project that has begun to hang over me. This pile of papers that were purchased for this purpose that only last week provided some interest sit there in a corner. A few ideas are trying to break out but they need material to be readily available. Those pieces will come from the breakdown of these papers. This is a project that will take some time to execute. There is a need to categorize to transform to chanel news and opinion into a creative expression. 

  
First things first though. The gobment wants to get its money that I owe and they would like me to take out a loan to pay it off. Eight weeks of payslip are needed in order for the bank to issue their opinion. They need eight recent weeks in order to judge my credit worthiness. For that privilege they will charge me 26.9% interest! There was a word used by one of the authors when he described the capitalist system: usury. There are a multitude of reasons why it would cost so much to borrow money from the bank. Many of those would be valid like the length of time I’ve been here as well as the “risk” involved in leanding me money. No one should worry… I’ll get rid of this debt by the end of the year. The gobment just wants to have their money now hence this dealing with the bank. 

  
This taking care of business took me to places that I haven’t been to. It distracted me from the things that I’d rather be doing. Along with me the other people also wanted to take care of business. The weekend is busy like that. The banks hours are the shortest on this day and they close when everyone leaves work. It is probably pretty empty except at lunch time when others would like to get some things done. The appointment went pretty smoothly except that I needed hard copies of my slips and they have all been emailed to me. They had no facility to help me out. It would probably cost too much and may be a security risk. 

  
The town was buzzing with people in the square. The weather was nice out so it made taking care of the bank amongst other things a pleasant experience. The sky was blue and the little fluffy clouds were no match for the powerful blast of the sun. I left the shopping for last and as I left the super shop there was rain and thick cloud blanketing the land. This greyness was what prompted the cashier to ask “why would you come here?”

I spent the afternoon consumed by reading some stories and not others. Looking at photographs and chatting with those who would answer and then there were those moments when music spaced me out as I wondered how I’ll get this project off the ground. More ideas came and tearing into the papers these ideas will build from one action to the next. Images of scandal, sex and tittilation contrasted with gloom, glory and entertainment. Wait… That’s not much contrast. Not like the contrast between typeface and paper or integrity under pressure to deviate.