Almost Composed

Meditation and curiosity

Anon – the greatest poet?

December 31, 2014

No doubt this January 1st we’ll all spring out of bed refreshed and ready to seize the promise of a pristine new year. As our clear, crisp minds embark on new creative pursuits, here’s a question to help understand what kind of projects we’re working on and who they’re really for. Would I be willing to do […]

categories: reflections

A philistine visits Tate St. Ives

September 14, 2014

However spellbinding the exhibitions at the Tate St. Ives, I’ve always felt that nothing can beat the view of Porthmeor beach from the upper gallery. Pulling your attention away from the indigo waves you’ll notice fascinating sculptures and paintings encased in glass, such as Alfred Wallace’s slanted and enchanted daubings of his life at sea. The thought occurred to […]

categories: essays, reflections

Strange caverns

August 7, 2014

The most ordinary locations in computer games often take on a life of their own. I’m thinking of the empty school in Silent Hill, rain on the windows in Gone Home, a back alley in The Secret of Monkey Island. There’s an insignificant window in the mansion of the first Resident Evil where text appeared to tell you that a dog could be heard […]

categories: reflections

A strange fork in the road

July 7, 2014

A certain ghost walk guide here in Cornwall finishes his tours with an enigmatic proverb: A person often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. This is the opening line in Jean de la Fontaine’s fable, The Horoscope. On the one hand it seems paradoxical to say that by departing from your destiny […]

The inattentive life is not to be lived

June 24, 2014

Before he was sentenced to death by hemlock, Socrates rejected the court’s clemency because it was offered under the condition that he cease questioning the people of Athens. The philosopher responded that, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Many have considered the implications of this and the force with which the unexamined life should be rejected. One translation has it […]

categories: essays, philosophy, reflections