You want to be a writer, right? But you had never left the country before last weekend? I think it was Thoreau who wrote "It is in vain sitting down to write without first having stood up to live." Get the hell out of Dawlish, mate. See the world. By that I mean go somewhere else and spend a while there, get to know it, the unique feel anywhere that is not the UK may have - Dublin is a lot more than Temple Bar, Trinity College and Grafton Street. But you go on a stag with a load of English blokes, what do you expect..? Anyway - I like your blog, mostly. Except for all the Embrace stuff. But everyone has a band like Embrace - a band they love blindly, despite the fact that they're obviously terrible.
There was never any mission statement for Auspicious Fish, it was never gonna be a Skykicking or Blissblog (neither of which I'd even read when I started this up in January 2003), and I've always written about football or what film I've just watched or how drunk I am or whatever. Which is to say that it's always been about me if it's about anything, and music and thought have been large parts of it because they're large parts of what I do to pass the time between waking and sleeping. And, at the moment, my life is particularly hectic and the music and thought is largely being written about for elsewhere (Stylus, Grooves, another place), and so the blog shifts balance slightly to counteract that and keep me standing up straight. As for the photos, most of them pre-date the blog, and it’s always been something I wanted to be a large part of it, but until recently I hadn’t sorted out image hosting properly.
The not-having-been-abroad thing is weird, yes, and I should go away and spend time elsewhere. New York in January or February is being arranged, if only for a weekend (there are finances to consider, as ever). At university I always made sure I had at least £100 in a bank somewhere that I could get at quickly in case I felt the need to leave, which I did often, but I’d leave for London or Leeds or Bristol or wherever. And when I was a kid we simply could never afford to go abroad (plus my mum is scared of flying and my dad is scared of sailing [kicking against a small-c background here]). But it’s there now, so maybe I’ll spend less money on records and more on moving around. As for sitting down to write and standing up to live, I never pitch myself anywhere (Stylus asked me, Grooves asked me, the other couple of things I’ve written I’ve been approached about) because I’m trying to stand up to live and always have been. Virginia Woolf said no one should write a novel before 30 or poetry after 30, and part of me agrees with that. I’ve got five years to go.
And I’m not sure I want to be a writer anyway. I do write. I want to be a park ranger on Dartmoor or something; I don’t know what I want to be, that’s why I write.
Also please don’t be anonymous! It’s really horrible not knowing who you’re talking to.
Nick Southall is Contributing Editor at Stylus Magazine and occasionally writes for various other places on and offline. You can contact him by emailing auspiciousfishNO@SPAMgmail.com
6 Comments:
your blog has increasingly become about you (and your sfj style photos) and less about thought and music. shame...
You want to be a writer, right? But you had never left the country before last weekend?
I think it was Thoreau who wrote "It is in vain sitting down to write without first having stood up to live." Get the hell out of Dawlish, mate. See the world.
By that I mean go somewhere else and spend a while there, get to know it, the unique feel anywhere that is not the UK may have - Dublin is a lot more than Temple Bar, Trinity College and Grafton Street. But you go on a stag with a load of English blokes, what do you expect..?
Anyway - I like your blog, mostly. Except for all the Embrace stuff. But everyone has a band like Embrace - a band they love blindly, despite the fact that they're obviously terrible.
There was never any mission statement for Auspicious Fish, it was never gonna be a Skykicking or Blissblog (neither of which I'd even read when I started this up in January 2003), and I've always written about football or what film I've just watched or how drunk I am or whatever. Which is to say that it's always been about me if it's about anything, and music and thought have been large parts of it because they're large parts of what I do to pass the time between waking and sleeping. And, at the moment, my life is particularly hectic and the music and thought is largely being written about for elsewhere (Stylus, Grooves, another place), and so the blog shifts balance slightly to counteract that and keep me standing up straight. As for the photos, most of them pre-date the blog, and it’s always been something I wanted to be a large part of it, but until recently I hadn’t sorted out image hosting properly.
The not-having-been-abroad thing is weird, yes, and I should go away and spend time elsewhere. New York in January or February is being arranged, if only for a weekend (there are finances to consider, as ever). At university I always made sure I had at least £100 in a bank somewhere that I could get at quickly in case I felt the need to leave, which I did often, but I’d leave for London or Leeds or Bristol or wherever. And when I was a kid we simply could never afford to go abroad (plus my mum is scared of flying and my dad is scared of sailing [kicking against a small-c background here]). But it’s there now, so maybe I’ll spend less money on records and more on moving around. As for sitting down to write and standing up to live, I never pitch myself anywhere (Stylus asked me, Grooves asked me, the other couple of things I’ve written I’ve been approached about) because I’m trying to stand up to live and always have been. Virginia Woolf said no one should write a novel before 30 or poetry after 30, and part of me agrees with that. I’ve got five years to go.
And I’m not sure I want to be a writer anyway. I do write. I want to be a park ranger on Dartmoor or something; I don’t know what I want to be, that’s why I write.
Also please don’t be anonymous! It’s really horrible not knowing who you’re talking to.
And I'd have got away with it too, if it wasn't for you pesky kids!
I think travel will sully your uniquely 'South West' pov. Don't do it again.
embrace LP 'Out Of Nothing'...
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