Seeing us through to the end of the year we’ve reached out to a number of our favourite artists and cultural creatives to join us in celebrating good things. A bunch of five things that make their world go around, inspire them or just need celebrating for what they are. There’s no theme here. It’s no kind of "best of year" round-up. These are just five things of the many things identified as making the world a better place to be. We’re all about positivity. Almost all of the time. We promise…
Meg Omen is a star in the making - if you've heard Meg's ukulele driven version of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wildside, you'd know this to be true. 2022 has been a breakout year for Meg, with the release of her Pomegranates EP, featuring on Adrian Goldberg's celebrated radio show and appearing at the Lakeside Live Festival. 2023 promises way more... Here's Meg's Five
Pre Pleasure - Julia Jacklin
A banging album to come out this year. My partner Josh and I recently went to watch Julia Jacklin perform at The Mill in Birmingham and she was amazing. She spoke in a recent interview about how lockdown caused her to fall out of love with music, something I think many of us relate to unfortunately. It was really encouraging listening to her speak openly about rediscovering her creativity. I think the album reflects just how openly she writes about her experiences in life. Ignore Tenderness is a standout track on the album and I think it's something that anyone who's lived through the trauma of being a teenage girl can relate to.
Marvellous Mrs Maisel
This is a show that I've been watching and rewatching religiously since the first season aired. I remember seeing the trailer play for the first time back in 2017 and being sucked in immediately. The vibrancy of every shot, the witty dialogue, the smorgasbord of fascinating characters - it's everything I ever wanted from a TV show and I think Midge has a lot of traits that I want to see in myself as a performer. She's a force to be reckoned with and shes confident and she doesn't let being in a male dominated field stop her from doing what she loves. Season 5 has just finished filming and it'll be the last one and I'm really sad to be saying goodbye to my comfort show.
Stinky Tinky
Ah Tinker. You stinky little cat. Tinker is one of Josh's cats but I am claiming full rights to being her favourite human. This little angel is so clingy and loving and even though she refuses to sit still once she's decided you're her chair for the evening, I love her. She's missing teeth so she dribbles uncontrollably if she's happy with the fussing you give her and I will take every soggy trouser leg I get if it means she's happy.
Egghead Bo Burnham
Long before Inside premiered on Netflix, Bo Burnham was just a YouTuber playing a keyboard in his bedroom. I watched him as a teenager go from writing funny and slightly immature songs online to directing his own comedy shows that take stand up comedy to a new level. Egghead was a poetry book that he released alongside the tour of his show What. I brought it as a fan, thinking it would be a funny addition to my bookshelf. I've read it over and over again. I've even got a tattoo of it's tag line You Can't Survive On Ideas Alone. It's a refreshingly silly and sometimes beautiful read - one page will be a chameleon on a dildo and then the next is a love poem. It's the duality of life.
Procrastinating
I absolutely love not doing what I should be doing. At the moment it's writing songs for a new album. I've been in a bit of a weird creative space at the minute. The weather's colder, the days are darker and I find myself wanting to just curl up on my bed and waste hours on my phone. I find it difficult forcing myself to write sometimes so procrastination can be a beautiful thing. Recently I procrastinated writing new music by writing new music (a strange thing to do but bare with me). I sat down and wrote a little Christmas song with Josh and procrastinating writing my actual music has kick started me into wanting to write again. You've gotta let yourself goof around every now and then - great things can happen because of it.
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- jan5.