…You’ve seen it all

Posted on June 27, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

In this finale of another season of TF, I’ve decided to let you into a trade secret: not every edition of TF is a spontaneous reaction to the events of the preceding week. To supplement weekly events, TF HQ holds a stockpile of quotes, thoughts, questions, names and lyrics which can be drawn upon as and when required.

For as long as I can remember, the name of that stockpile has been a line from The Secret Machines’ “Lightning Blue Eyes”. I’ve always enjoyed the line and I find it helpful to be reminded of it when I’m struggling for inspiration.

The first part of the line was the headline for last week’s edition: “In your dreams…” As you might recall, I said that there were two ways of saying those three words: in a sarcastic or scathing way or in some other way which I would explain this week.

The second half of the line provides the context which allows us to correctly interpret the first: “In your dreams you’ve seen it all”.

Here at TF, saying “in your dreams” is not a reproach – it’s a direction. Dreams are the brain’s way of processing and rationalising what we have experienced while we are awake. They show our deepest fears and ambitions. In a real sense we have seen all of ourselves in our dreams. Therefore, if you want inspiration, your dreams aren’t such a bad place to start.

This time next week, the editorial team of TF will be visiting the organisation’s spiritual home – Moonstone Beach, California. You may have seen it before if you took a look at the photo at the top of the website:

Above the beach is a hill and, on top of that hill, there is now a castle. The hill was once the favourite spot of a young man called William Randolph Hearst, who used to make a point of riding out there to enjoy the hill’s view of the sparkling Pacific Ocean. It turned out that the hill was more than just a hill to this young man – he called it La Cuesta Encantada. He was so enchanted by the hill that he dreamt of building a castle on it’s summit. Years later, when ownership of the hill passed to him, the dream started to become a reality. It now looks like this:

I’ve spent a long time wondering why I don’t have the drive to do a particular job in the same way as many of you. I wondered whether I might be money-centric (not that I’m rolling in it now) or whether I just had a dull character. Thinking about Hearst caused me to change my mind.

Hearst didn’t spend all his time at his castle – he was a media mogul and so couldn’t be in such a relatively remote location for too long. He went there because he was passionate about the place. I daresay he dreamt about it.

I’m passionate about that part of the world too – I feel utterly content when I’m there. I find myself day-dreaming about it a lot while on the train. Maybe, my dream is to be able to regularly carve out time when I can feel like I do when I’m there. Maybe I’m the kind of person who doesn’t find satisfaction through an occupation but is searching for something less tangible than that. Maybe that’s why I became involved with TF.

Anyway, I shall leave you with the words of Mark Twain – a Tash I have been saving for a special occasion:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Have a great couple of weekend folks!

What is NEXT?

P.S.

An eagle eyed member of TF’s London office spied this in Thursday’s Metro. Hope you win the tournament, Fred!

In your dreams…

Posted on June 20, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

As has become customary at this time of year, this week’s TF is the first part of an end-of-season double-edition.

The end of this season prompted me to look at TF editions from this time last year. It turns out that the second last edition of 2012/13 was titled “what’s next?” – a question which is now a key element of each edition.

I can now report that the question “what’s next?” has become one which many Appreciators ask themselves on a regular basis. I’ve had messages from folk who are making bold decisions relating to their career in which they say they must “dare greatly” and that they feel they are standing on a ledge looking out over the world without thinking about the empty space beneath them.

That’s not because they’ve read TF and experienced some kind of epiphany. I think it’s because they see that being positive and ambitious encourages those around them to do the same. It’s a virtuous cycle which leads to more people being successful and which also provides a support network for those times when things don’t quite go as well as we’d hoped.

The title of this week’s TF is “In your dreams…” You can say those three words in different ways. One way of saying them is the approach which is perhaps more likely to be used by someone who doesn’t have a positive attitude. They would say it dismissively and sarcastically.

The other way is one which I will explain next week – where having a dream, or a vision, or ambition, is the only way to get anything extraordinary done.

In the meantime, I will leave you with a Tash who dared greatly, who did some pretty extraordinary stuff, but who is now in need in a bit of support. His team has dominated European and world football since 2008 but their time has come to an end after being knocked out of the World Cup in the first round. Don’t worry Vincente Del Bosque, we still appreciate you. How couldn’t we appreciate a man with a Tash this good:

Have a great weekend folks!

What’s next?

BANG ON!

Posted on June 13, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

Just a short one this week, which is ironic as it’s something this week’s Tash would never say.

There are various types of towering totems of Tash toting terrificness. Some men wear a Tash because it is fashionable; others for charity. Some even wear a Tash just to irritate their significant others. However, there are a few men, a very few, who wear a Tash simply because their personalities require it and they would look ridiculous if they wore anything else.

Two of my most favourite Tashes were worn by such a man: Rik Mayall. As I’m sure most of you know, he passed away this week.

I’m not going to pretend that I know much about Mayall’s background or what he was like in “real life”. I read a quote which suggested that’s just how he liked it. What I do know is that he created two characters for whom a Tash was absolutely necessary.

The first is Bombardier Bedford, from the Bombardier Real Ale advert:

The other is Lord Flashheart from Blackadder:

If you have a spare three minutes, this clip is well worth a watch:

The eccentricity and self-confidence of these characters renders it impossible for them to be imagined without their respective Tashes. Whether it’s head-butting and swatting cannon balls out of mid-air while defeating old “Boney” on the field of battle; or admiring a bridesmaid’s beard and saying “WOOF!” in the most provocative fashion imaginable, Mayall’s characters are two of the most amusing I’ve ever come across. The fact that they both sport superlative facial hair only serves to reinforce their excellence.

It’s a shame that Mayall has gone but hopefully, wherever he is, he’s still climbing through his latest conquest’s window – to leave a box of chocolates next to her bed – before machine gunning his phone number into the wall and disappearing into the night to meet her sister.

With that, I shall bid you farewell this week.

Have a great weekend folks!

What’s next?

Closer To The Edge

Posted on June 6, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators!

I’ve been enjoying two-wheeled racing of a faster kind than usual this week after being captivated by the Isle of Man TT.

For the uninitiated, the TT is a week-long series of races on different classes of motorbikes. The main course – the Mountain Course – is around 37 miles long and involves riders screaming along normal roads, inches from curbs, lamp posts, garden walls etc, at speeds approaching 200 miles an hour. The fastest riders get round one lap at an average speed of over 130mph. To understand just how fast these riders go, you really have to see them:

The other night, I watch a documentary about the TT called “Closer To The Edge”. The film followed Guy Martin (some of you may have seen him in various programmes over the last few years) and his quest to win a TT.

Martin is entirely focused on racing. He’s very exact in how his bike is set up – which is understandable when there’s so much riding on it – and he distances himself from any kind of commitment in order to ensure that as few people as possible will be affected in the event that he is involved in an accident.

The reason that Martin takes such drastic action to avoid commitment is because of the other side of the TT – death. Almost every year, someone is killed while racing. According to Wikipedia, 242 competitors have been killed since 1911. In Closer To The Edge, Martin narrowly avoids serious injury when he crashes at 170mph and his bike explodes. In the same race, one of the other competitors clips a curb while going flat-out and is thrown about a hundred meters from the road, via a stone wall. His list of injuries seems to include every bone in his body but he somehow survived. As I was doing a bit of research about the TT, I read that someone died in today’s main race.

Every single rider I’ve seen being interviewed says that they know the risks and that it doesn’t put them off. That’s despite many of them having families. When speaking about a competitor who has died, almost all of them say: “he died doing the thing he loved.”

My question – and I don’t know the answer to it – is whether it is ever folly to do something you love? Is it possible to dare too greatly?

Most weeks, TF talks about living to the full and taking a few risks. Is that naive though? How many of us would roll the dice on our lives or livelihoods or happiness in order to chase a dream? If we would, how do we decide when the dream is worth chasing and when we’re better off accepting that some dreams don’t come true? What if the dream isn’t fully formed in your head but you know that you need to do something differently? These are questions which bother me incessantly these days.

As I say, I don’t know what the answers to these questions are. I’d be interested to know what you all think.

As one might expect of a section of the population who live life to the absolute limit, Tashes are commonplace among the motorcycling fraternity. It’s been a tough choice, but here are this week’s Tashes:

Glenn – the Biker – from the Village People:

And Paul “Senior” Tuetal, of Orange County Choppers and the Discovery Channel’s “American Chopper”:

Have a great weekend folks. If you’re interested, the Senior TT (the main race of the week) is being shown on ITV2 at 9pm tonight.

What’s next?

Good Samaritans

Posted on May 30, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators!

I was out on my bike last weekend (fear not, this is not a cycling related TF) when I fell foul of some glass on the road and punctured a tyre. The scene at the side of the road was not pleasant:

While I stood trying to look like I knew what I was doing, several other cyclists offered their assistance. Naturally – being a bloke – I assured them that I had the situation under control and bade them on their way. Some of these good Samaritans, however, saw through the facade and made meaningful attempts to assist me. As it happened, even with able assistance, my ineptitude shone through and I had to call for a lift. Incredibly, two people offered to pick me up and I was soon safe at home, hell-bent on becoming an expert in changing a tyre.

As it turned out, the good Samaritans were not just on the road up to Whitelees last weekend.

In the centre of Glasgow, as the iconic Glasgow School of Art seemed to be entirely lost to fire, members of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service worked tirelessly to save what they could.

I’m sure they did so at some risk to their own safety and you might think that, as soon as the risk to people had been reduced, the fire fighters would prefer to avoid any risk to themselves. Apparently that wasn’t the case. Even though the fire spread through the building from top to bottom, 90% of the building was saved; as was 70% of its contents.

You have to ask why these fire fighters would work so hard to save inanimate objects (however culturally important) when doing so might put their own safety at risk. The Assistant Chief Officer on the scene answered that question when he said:

“We are of course very conscious the Mackintosh is a world-renowned building that is a key feature of this great city, and that the artworks it stores are not only valuable but also cherished… We are acutely aware this period is the culmination of years of endeavour for students and that their irreplaceable work is inside the Mackintosh.”

I thought it was interesting – in a week when a substantial proportion of the population voted for the latently racist and patently hateful UKIP – that I saw two examples of people go out of their way to help people they didn’t know.

What prompted the help in these cases was solidarity among folk who have common interests in a particular sport and a particular city. More than that, the fire fighters also went above and beyond what could reasonably be expected of them just because they knew that the students had put a lot of effort into their work.

Leaving aside the policies of UKIP, an issue which bothers me persistently is the attitude or feeling which UKIP creates. All of UKIP’s policies seem to be premised on the supposedly shocking state of British Society – “Broken Britain”, as the Daily Mail likes to put it.

Sure, there are aspects of society which are objectionable, but when I see folk helping out others just because they think it’s the right thing to do, I am reminded that people are generally well-intentioned, pleasant and just like “us”. I reckon you’d have difficulty in finding a UKIP supporter with anything close to a positive attitude about society as a whole; they’d rather predict doom and poverty.

I’ll end this week’s TF with two photos. The first is of a “thank you” which was left for the fire fighters outside Glasgow’s Central Station:

And the second is this week’s Tash – Charles Rennie Mackintosh – designer of the Glasgow School of Art.

Have a great weekend folks!

What’s next?

Helplessness Blues

Posted on May 23, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

This week, I watched the last episode of The West Wing for the umpteenth time.

There were a few TF related points to take from the last 5-10 minutes before the curtain fell on President Bartlet’s regime:

As he stands in the West Wing for the last time, President Bartlet looks out the window onto the White House lawn. It’s clearly hitting him that his time in power is coming to an end and he’s thinking whether he could have done more. His wife reassures him that he “did a lot of good” but he’s clearly not convinced.

Later, at the end of his first staff meeting in the Oval Office, the new president (I won’t tell you his name just in case any of you want to watch it in the future) asks “what’s next?” and smiles. He’s full of ambition and determination to achieve all of the things that Bartlet didn’t.

Finally, in the last scene of the series, President Bartlet is flying on Air Force One to his family home. The new president has been sworn in and Bartlet’s job is at an end. Again, he’s staring pensively out the window as the sun sets in the distance. This time, when his wife asks him what he’s thinking, he simply smiles and says:

Tomorrow.

I suspect that from time to time we’ve all experienced those emotions. We’ve all been full of enthusiasm at the beginning of a great undertaking and, by the time we reach the end, we have all found ourselves wondering whether there’s more we could have done.

That’s where perspective comes in. Once we realise, as President Bartlet did when he looked out of the window of Air Force One, that we are but functioning cogs in this great machinery we call humanity, we understand that it’s an achievement to have made even a small positive change to the world around us.

Peppered through this week’s TF are references to a song called “Helplessness Blues” by Fleet Foxes. The song starts by describing someone suffering from the helplessness blues but in a line that marks a change of pace and message Robin Pecknold sings:

What good is it to sing helplessness blues?

Why should I wait for anyone else?

As much as we all sometimes feel helpless, or that we could have done more, a bit of perspective should change that. The only way to deal with that feeling is to remember that our feelings of helplessness will continue only for as long as we choose not to take control; that we cannot wait for someone to tell us what to do; that we must think of tomorrow rather than yesterday; and that we must ask “what’s next!?”

Although President Bartlet doesn’t rock a Tash, it turns out that the actor who plays him did. Martin Sheen, take a bow, this is a smashing effort:

Have a great weekend folks!

What’s next?

Tick Tock

Posted on May 2, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

I was struck this week by the reaction of many people to the death of Bob Hoskins. Overwhelmingly, the first reaction of people mentioning the news was to describe his or her memories of one of his roles. That’s true for me as I immediately thought of his portrayal of Smee in Hook – a film that many of us remember fondly:

Remembering Hook started me thinking about Peter Pan and J. M. Barrie’s story more generally. I have to say, I didn’t think too much about the plot when I was younger. My understanding was essentially: boy v. Pirate = good fun. It strikes me now that maybe I should take a closer look.

Captain Hook (his first name was James, you know) was a swashbuckling and cruel pirate. He plotted and schemed against someone who was a good 40 years younger than him. However, he was terrified by one thing: the tick-tock of a clock in the belly of a crocodile i.e. his doom:

Before he died, Bob Hoskins gave his daughter 11 tips to follow in life, which she then listed on her website. These tips were: laugh; be yourself; be flamboyant; don’t worry about other people’s opinions; get angry; whatever you do, always give it a good go; be generous and kind because you can’t take it with you; appreciate beauty, take pictures and make memories; don’t take yourself too seriously; never, ever, ever, ever give up; and love with all your heart.

I think James Hook could have used those tips. Rather than using the tick-tock of the crocodile as a reminder that life is sometimes short and that he should get on with making the best of it, Hook became resentful and hostile.

As for us, regardless of whether we hear it or not, time is always ticking away. It may not be a crocodile that gets us but none of us will be here forever. I guess the dream we should all have is to move onto our last great adventure in the way which Bob Hoskins seems to have done. To do that, we should maybe remember something which J.M Barrie says in the book:

“Perhaps we could all fly if we were as dead-confident-sure of our capacity to do it as was bold Peter Pan that evening.”

I am aware that several Appreciators are having problems with confidence these days. They are wondering whether they should take the path which they know will lead somewhere safe (albeit somewhere where the may not necessarily want to go) or the path which turns away into the unknown. I would recommend taking a bit of both Peter Pan’s and James Hook’s attitudes into account when making that decision: hear the clock ticking; be conscious of the fact that we all grow up/old; but have the confidence in yourself to fly.

I think it’s time for the Tashes. The obvious example is Dustin Hoffman, in Hook:

Usually, such an excellent example would suffice for one week. However, I was surprised to discover that J.M. Barrie rocked an absolutely superlative Tash, so this week is a double-helping of Tash-based goodness:

Have a cracking weekend folks!

What’s next?

If at first you don’t succeed

Posted on April 11, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

I had not intended to follow up on last week’s TF straight away but I had also not expected the reaction that I received. The people spoke and their answer was:

Here are a few examples of the responses (I have paraphrased in places to take out some of the stronger language):

“Re TF, what you are doing is laudable but nationalism is not something that can be argued dispassionately. It’s a matter of faith. Your average nationalist cannot be shaken from the belief that he is right (he loses his ability to reason when he cedes his individualism to the “nation”). Folk lamenting the lack of debate are missing the point: nationalists cannot debate. They look for arguments supporting their prejudices (same as folk who deny global warming).”

“It’s a disingenuous debate and I’m saddened by your willingness to try to take the politics out of an inherently political debate. There is no independence on offer, stop pretending that there is.”

“I know you are trying to broaden it out but the issue of the day is whether we have an Independent Scotland or not. I don’t think your thing is impartial because it implicitly accepts the premise of Nationalism. You’ve been beaten in the dressing room.”

“This weeks TF is a real self indulgent effort…”

There were other comments too and I’m grateful to everyone who responded.

The point about faith is particularly interesting. In a world that is only able to operate thanks to logarithms and science, faith can be seen as a synonym for irrationality and as something that is unhelpful when it comes to decision-making.

I can see the merits in that point of view, but if our lives were ruled by logic, would it not be a terribly lonely and uneventful place? Would we risk heartbreak by entering into relationships with people who, at least at first, are strangers? Would we have children? Also, to what extent do we base our “logic” on notions that we don’t fully understand? For example, how many of us use modes of transport that rely on the internal combustion engine or aerodynamics without really knowing how or why they work? How many of us understand how and why modern medicine operates? These are all things I don’t understand but in which, I suppose, I have faith.

It’s also not accurate to say that only a “yes” vote is based on faith. A “no” vote will also involve faith; just a different kind. I also don’t accept that we can’t have a conversation which involves faith. I think that we need to tailor the way we talk to each other in order to take into account where folk are coming from.

To conclude, I don’t think that we should go into the voting booths on 18 September and make a decision based on faith alone. After all, we wouldn’t get on a plane if it’s wings looked a bit rickety and we wouldn’t take medical advice from a doctor who was drunk. The point I’m trying to make is that faith does have a part to play in the independence discussion.

For the sake of offering all points of view (and to preempt this being thrown in my face), I’ll leave you with a contrary view from this week’s Tash: Friedrich Nietzsche

“Faith: not wanting to know what is true.”

Have a great weekend folks!

What’s next?

People of Scotland, lend each other your ears

Posted on April 4, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

For once, the subject of this week’s TF is not a Tash-toting festival of humanity (although, of course, such a person will be included) but is a topic that will impact many of us and generations of Scots to come. This week, I’m talking about the referendum which will ask whether Scotland should be an independent country

I must say from the outset that I will not be offering my view in relation to the referendum. My aim this morning is to offer a way for us to have civil and constructive conversations about our hopes and fears for Scotland in the future. It’s important that we have these discussions now because the way in which we talk about the referendum will shape how we talk about Scotland from 19 September onwards.

To start that process, I invite you to consider this Commitment to Respectful Dialogue. Some of you may have seen this in The Herald and The Scotsman a couple of weeks ago, and many of you will recognise a few names amongst the signatories:

A group called Collaborative Scotland presented the Commitment following a series of meetings which took place over the last 6 months or so. The meetings, which were chaired by John Sturrock QC (an internationally recognised facilitator of constructive discussions and negotiations), gave those who attended the chance to test the theory behind the Commitment. The meetings were specifically not an opportunity to debate the referendum but were an opportunity to talk about how we have conversations about the future.

The magic of the process was that when the 50 of us sat down in groups to talk about our aspirations for Scotland, we discovered that the hopes and fears that we have in common are far more numerous than those that divide us. During our conversations, it was generally impossible to tell which way others would vote and, tellingly, that didn’t seem to matter.

So what does this have to do with you? Well, I know how many of you read TF every week and I suspect that many of you would find the conversations which I observed informative and inspiring. I also know that many of you are influential within your work/social circles and it strikes me that, together, we could spread the Commitment to a wider audience.

After all, on 18 September, we will be given the opportunity to shape Scotland’s path for centuries to come. We should take that opportunity to act as positively and constructively as we can. For my part, I’m planning to help host a conversation in Glasgow, and if there’s an appetite for it, I will invite all of you to come along.

I’ll therefore leave you with a link to the Collaboration Scotland website, where you can sign up to receive further information and offer your support to the Protocol; a request that anyone who might be interested in coming along for an evening of conversation in Glasgow sends me an email; and a quote from this week’s Tash, Mahatma Ghandi:

“We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?”

It seems that every week that passes, this question becomes more important: what’s next?

Have a great weekend folks!

You better, you better, you bet!

Posted on February 14, 2014 by tashfriday

Good morning Tash Appreciators,

I was talking to a fellow Appreciator about how I couldn’t think of anything to write this week. Her one bit of advice was: “just don’t make it about Valentine’s Day.” The thing is, that is exactly what this week’s TF is going to be about.

I suspect that many of you will not be fans of Valentine’s Day. The usual complaint about that it’s a creation of the American greetings card industry. After a bit of reading, it’s clear that’s not the case. It apparently dates back to an early Christian festival celebration of Saint Valentinus. These days, it is far less “Americanised” than Halloween or Christmas.

I don’t mind there being a day set aside for people to show their affection for one another. My complaint is that, if you engage with Valentine’s Day, all you can do is meet expectations or be excruciatingly unoriginal.

If you’re in a relationship, you either have to make some kind of gesture (which, ordinarily, would be appreciated but on Valentine’s Day is seen as normal) or you do nothing and run the risk of inflicting upset upon your significant other.

The Who summed up this sorry state of affairs in “You Better You Bet” when Roger Daltrey sings:

“When I say I love you, you say ‘you better’

You better, you better, you bet!”

If you’re single, you might get texts from your single pals with dubious rallying cries lifted from Beyoncé songs (“all the single ladies” springs to mind). Worse still, you might receive condescending head tilts from those smug folk who offer consolation in the form of platitudes: “plenty of fish in the sea” etc.

At least all of us are in the same boat in a couple of respects: dating companies will be doing their utmost to buy our email addresses from any source – legitimate or otherwise – and will then endeavour to clog our inboxes with offers of free trials of their websites. Not only that, none of us will be able to go out for food as every restaurant will have bumped their prices up by a minimum of 50%.

There is, however, one group of people who won’t give Valentine’s Day a second thought: men with moustaches. Some of these men – the ones who really know how to rock their Tash – transcend the single v. relationship dynamic of Valentine’s Day because everyone appreciates them. Therefore, Valentine’s Day for them is just like any other. Here are some classic of examples of the sort of chaps I mean:

Clark Gable

Jean Dujardin

Errol Flynn

Have a great weekend folks!

What’s next?

Tash Friday

Tag Archives: manly

…You’ve seen it all

In your dreams…

BANG ON!

Closer To The Edge

Good Samaritans

Helplessness Blues

Tick Tock

If at first you don’t succeed

People of Scotland, lend each other your ears

You better, you better, you bet!