I feel like I’m back at the beginning. Its another sunny day and there is talk of another wave (or waves). There is less talk of PPE but we are being told not to seek out medical grade masks as they are precious when the French are handing them out at stations like leaflets. I don’t see any shop assistants wearing masks and I’m pretty sure we’ve not got to the point where its the reality that PPE is sorted, rather it just isn’t headline news anymore. There are plenty of other scandals to bandy about.

thanks Danny

I played for 15 minutes last night on another live open mic. The format was good. It felt much more interactive than the live lounges We are getting used to where one person has a slot but they just appear, singing out of their living room, kitchen or bedroom for a set time then disappear. Because of the frequent activity and constant negotiations by the organiser there was a genuine community feel about it (thanks Danny). I found it stressful, though, because Facebook was really confusing me (its far too complex these days). Thanks to Danny Liptrott I didn’t need to worry and it worked when it needed to. I should have known it would. I was just struggling with bandwidth when I came on but even that resolved fairly quickly.

Writing stuff like this I find really helpful even if it soaks up my energy and time at the beginning of the day when its not earning me anything. For that reason I will probably have to stop writing these daily blogs to concentrate on my cash generating projects. I’m of a mind to write a very short account each day and publish the week’s thoughts (once a week if you hadn’t guessed) in a weekly digest.

On the musical theme: I was reminded (as Facebook does) of a song I wrote and published a year ago. Ironically its a hugging song (you know – the activity in which we are hardly world leaders and is so 2019). But I’m not anxious for a hug (not that I’m sure I’d appreciate one) because I don’t want to feel better. I don’t want to go through another 60 day cycle and end up 1/2 an inch forward and 3 yards sideways. I want things to be better. We need to alter our language and our approach to familiar situations. This morning I’ve been disappointed by a friend regurgitating the old “they’re all the same” trope which, while it does reflect a general, and somewhat justified, sense of disillusionment with politicians in general, by levelling the playing field it not only relegates the good politicians but promotes the bad ones. That’s one of the reasons we have the current clowns running the show.

Some of us have been reviving or unlearning some of our WWII history — pretty topical having recently commemorated VE day and been reminded of the Blitz spirit and the good old stiff upper lip. Its slipping into proper history with fewer and fewer of the population actually experiencing it which makes this a good time to re-evaluate our understanding. There was a great deal of concern expressed when Donald Trump celebrated VE Day as when Britain and the USA ended the war and saved us from the Nazis. Its hardly surprising that Trump’s entire understanding of WWII comes from Saving Private Ryan but the level of ignorance in the UK and USA is staggering. A more balanced verdict would be that Russia beat the Germans with our assistance (Correcting WWII history: How the USA erased the USSR victory over Nazi Germany — with Peter Kuznick is just over an hour long but well worth spending the time watching).

I can’t believe I’m writing a whole story around my 15 minutes of fame (high five Andy Warhol). Its small innovations like last night’s open mic, generally lo-tec but collaborative and community based, that we can take from this crisis. We just need to make sure this time is not remembered as when our government saved us or that the Blitz spirit pulled us through in a nationlistic frenzy of back slapping. Some believed, eroniously, that Italy would struggle with lockdown because they are so touchy feely. Our government felt like it didn’t need to follow what the rest of the world were doing and look where that’s getting us.

Its time for us to have a wholescale rethink. The title and image obviously reference the famous quote “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” but its just a convenient hook to hang the re-evaluation theme on, its not a commentary on feminism.