The power of apocalyptic imaginations

Today I am writing about the apocalyptic visions that propel climate change discourse forward. In my usual random association kind of way, I decided to look up the Metallica song Enter Sandman to give me some background music that would inspire apocalyptic writings. I found on youtube video footage of what looks to be a truly EPIC concert in Moscow in 1991. There is something truly amazing about this and it is making me think of the influence of this music, this band, these performances on things as profound as international relations and domestic politics. The connections are made explicitly in some of the videos, the Russian police, protests, the quest for freedom, rebellion, and the love shown by the people at the concert not only for the band, but for America. I can't help but think how interesting it would be to do a project, interviewing people in places like Moscow about the influence this music had on them during this time period. I know from my own experience living in Iran in the 1990s that Metallica among others was one of the most influential bands. Though they couldn't come there to play, walls were graffittied with their name and privately people were rocking out to them, releasing all that pent up tension and feeling for a moment the sensation of being FREE, of being master of their own destiny, of indulging in the fantasies of breaking free from the oppressive control enacted by the state.

Watching these videos I find myself filled with energy, enthusiasm, joy! There is something so alive about this music, it's not sitting back and taking anything, it's standing up, jumping up! Expressing freedom and power and life in the face of difficulty and danger and threat and death. I wonder if that kind of power and life fire can only be expressed in the face of the threat of the opposite, powerlessness, apathy, disaster and depression. Listening to those guitar riffs I feel those feelings are being confronted full on, goaded out and fully destroyed. Wahaaaay!

Colour Palettes

I am sitting at my desk in the office that I share with other postgrads. It's a beautiful sunny day outside, though very icy and treacherous. In the morning, all the plants, leaves, blades of grass, twigs, were frosted, as though they had been lightly dusted with icing sugar. The sky is clear and if I turn my head I can see the deep blue sea. In front of me, behind my computer and my desk covered in papers and books, is my corkboard which I have decorated with photographs. My selection of pictures is colourful and quite simple, firey autumn leaves, a red sunset, a pink sky reflected on the wet sand of a beach, green trees, a yellow wall in front of which is a display of rustic food... Daubs of bright colour, simple, beautiful shapes, all outside. The photos lift my spirits and give me something to look at which I find inspiring and calming at the same time. My eyes seem to find the photo that reflects the colour I need an infusion of, bright red and orange for a little fireiness, soothing blues and greens for some calm...

I remember reading a book when I was a child about a man who had had a near death experience, and once he came out of it he decided to set up a centre for colour therapy, where people could come and go into different coloured rooms to achieve different states of mind. I think that would be a fun experiment, to see the effect that different colours had on people. I've heard that people's favourite colours say a lot about their personalities as well, even that people have different coloured souls :-) . I wonder how the same colour might influence different people differently.

Do you have a favourite colour? Why do you like it? Do you find you surround yourself with things of a particular colour? Like to dress in certain colours?