Strange Color Blue

The Dane in me just love that pale blue color, its constant and slight change between green, turquoise and blue, depending on the light.

Perhaps in need of a visit to the seaside?
Like Keith taking off for Jamaica and getting his groove back.

I had first gone to Jamaica for a few days off at a place called Frenchman's Cove in 1969. You could hear the rhythm going around.

Today's advice to myself is to go find someting blue'ish to gaze at, let the calmness of the color get to me, and accept I'm not
living it up barefoot in Jamaica.

Water Under The Bridge

Mick pouted a bit, as is his wont. I told him, 'It's water under
the bridge. I want to talk about the future. We're larger
than a little bitching'.

In Keith's words, that's what happend when he and Mick first
met up after the "Jagger willy jibe" in "Life".

And considering the evil warfare between The Glimmer Twins down through the years, this can only be seen as a tiny ripple. Well, maybe not if you're Mick Jagger.

But as Keith says on dealing with his evil twin: There's no possibility of divorce. We have to take care of the baby.

Somtimes you're stuck with a Brenda on your back, and no matter how pretentious
and overblown you might think they are, you still have to deal with them, work with
them, fight with them...and possibly even get to create with them.

Nevertheless, to put it like Keith:
With the Stones he's great. It's best to keep him on a short leash.

Opposites Complement

"Opposites attract" might be yet another Hollywood
lie in romance.

In work and in friendship it often works really
well though, sometimes turning out completely
unexpected insights and heartfelt laughs.

The good stuff you want more of!

Keith and Alberto are probably as much of opposites

as possible for two men to be. 

The ridig regime of Alberto's training and ascetic 

way of living - versus Keith's nocturnal instinct while 

basking in the love of art, music and his family, his close 

friends and the guitar. For one!

But I guess underneath the skin of both men is a sublime 

passion for being seriously good at what they do. Of respecting 

their competitors and honoring the old masters. Of staying true 

to yourself, devouring life on a daily basis and of insisting on being brave.

The man is a fully achieved realisation of the idea of the man.

as Keith has been portrayed more than once.

Gentlemen! You Inspire Me!

One Shape Fits Nobody

The wicked Japan Relief T-Shirt was in the mail yesterday. A nice surprise on a rainy day, baby.

Fans from 35 countries helped raise $138,000 USD 
by purchasing more than 5,000 limited edition t-shirts.

The T doesn't fit me though.
I'm not squarly shaped. By far!

It's not Keith's nor my fault. It just follows that a design made to fit "everybody" fits "nobody".

You can't erase the differences, and you shouldn't try
to either. And I reckon Keith agrees, but then it was all done for helping out in Japan.
That's a good enough reason for me!

For decades, Japanese fans have been some of the most passionate supporters of 
rock and roll and as an effort to give back, Richards made this special, limited 
edition t-shirt based on a photo taken by Claude Gassian on the Japanese leg of 
the Steel Wheels Tour in 1990.

How you can help: JapanSociety.org/earthquake

Choose Your Mentors

It's nice to sit down on the job occationally.

Keith of course finds meaning in most. And true to his deep understanding
of what drives his passionate contributions, he openly reaches out to other
musicians, sounds and instruments.

To me it certainly beats the 30 minute webinar on how to create your first
online business.

I do like the idea of creating lots more incomes through my passion(s)
online though. I just don't believe in mastering any corporate or personal
skill in a flash - via luck, faking it or otherwise pretending to be a wiz.

If you try and add a melody to a riff rather than evolving from it, 
it always sounds completely false.

What a Wake-up

 

What an amazing way to start the day off with a
"direct message from Keith Richards".

I saw it the inbox & my heart skipped a beat, baby :-)

The Spread The Love Method

Reading up on blogging I consulted a cool site: www.ridiculouslyextraordinary.com
and got blown away by the article:
Everything You’ve Been Force-fed About Blogging Is Wrong.
And I do like to have my mind blown!

As Keith says:
I never know what I'm looking for, exactely, but when I hit upon it, I know it.

The article points out that:
"Conventional wisdom suggests one of the following ways to become
a successful blogger:
1: Write amazing content on a consistent schedule.
2: The fans will follow."

We all kind of know better, and still I kept to the thinking for a while,
like "I'll just post and the rest will follow." Doesn't work that way.

Spread The Love Method
Instead I took another advice from the article about "be everywhere".
Ergo I have added links to my Facebook and Twitter accounts to the blog.

And I intent to follow through on the Spread The Love Method:

1: Write amazing content on a consistent schedule.
2: Write amazing content for others.
3: The fans will follow.

Practise

In Keith's words: Nostalgia is a luxury

Looking back is probably not as important as it once was.

Or maybe it is just as important as always to get the old masters'
knowledge under your skin in order to find your own truth in what you do
& what you'd like to do.

In any sense practise can't be overlooked as a daily effort of huge value.

Like anything else, the more practise you have at something, the more 
you find room to maneuver and find out what your limits are and how 
to overcome them.

On My List

Everybody knows Keith is a heavy reader.

And as a classic lover of literature, Keith says he found refuge
in books before he discovered the blues.

He now owns thousands of books and even considered "professional training" to manage them.

Sounds a bit geeky, and the librarian’s standard Dewey Decimal classification system did turn out to be "too much hassle" - restoring my belief in the Keith kind of not trying to control things too much.

Instead he keeps his favoured books close to hand, and so do I.


ON MY LIST: 

Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business
Erik Qualman

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Stone me. The Wit and Wisdom of Keith Richards
Mark Blake

The Internet is a Playground
David Thorne

Influenze. The Psychology of Persuasion
Robert B. Cialdini

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
By Malcolm Gladwell

Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success
Claire Shipman, Katty Kay

The Next Big Thing: Spotting and Forecasting Consumer Trends for Profit
William Higham

The Myths of Innovation
Scott Berkun

My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic: Everything You Need to Know 
About Art, Ads, Life, God and Other Mysteries and Weren't Afraid to Ask
Charles Saatchi

The Main Thing

It's not that easy to be Keith Richards. But it's not so hard, either.
The main thing is to know yourself.

So Keith is quoted along with his picture, always placed next to my desk.

It could be mistaken for a 'Keith shrine' with the
candle and the fresh flowers, like offerings to the guru.
But there's no such thing in my world.

Keith, his life, his philosophy and way of thinking, of being, is a strong and kind influence in my daily life.

Now he's no God, but he is a king. And I do try to navigate with both ears open to his big sea of wisdom and courage - in order to find my own route through it all.

As Keith says: Everybody starts by imitating their heroes.

Karma is a bitch!

You might as well accept the fact that evil is there and deal with it any way you can.
'Sympathy for the Devil' is a song that says 'Don't forget him. If you confront him,
then he's out of a job.'

That would certainly be true in the case of Johan Håkansson of JM Kommunikation.

The man is going out of business faster than I can say:
"So sick and tired of hanging around with jerks like you"!

Yet another freelance supplier burned by Johan Håkansson
Today I got a call from another freelance supplier, who's been burned by Håkansson.

Johan Håkansson got in touch with the person in question at one of the Danish
freelancer sites. And using the same dodgy tactic of heavily hinting at "12-14 big jobs
in the pipeline", as he used with me, he managed to persuade this freelancer into
delivering a week's job done in 24 hours!

Håkansson added some new lies to his "explanations" and then cashed in on
yet another "free" delivery by another small business owner, now bleeding!

But karma is a bitch, Johan Håkansson. Go google yourself!

Solid Sunday

I do love a quiet morning with the bare essentials.
And I adore the wit flowing from a passionate man's
colossal history - it's like Keith starting the day off with Mozart; a solid base.

A new day, a new beginning; It's curcial to my sanity that I bring that thought with me every where. It's what I have to do..."Lose your dreams, And you will lose your mind" as the song goes.