The Licks You Have To Follow

I don't need to hear Bill to go through a song.
I need to hear Keith to go through a song.
I know Bill will be playing what I'm playing anyway.
I need to hear Keith because it's all there: the time,
the chord changes, and all the licks you have to follow.

In the words of the great Charlie Watts, Keith is a man to
look to, listen to, a lick to follow.

Not because Keith dictates, but because he is naturally leading you - himself, the band - in the direction of the right timing, feeling his way through the subtle changes in precision, in chords, sounds and presence.

It's always been said that Keith is the soul of the Stones, the backbone of a band you never leave - except in a coffin (though Bill eventually did make it out without dying first).

Perhaps it's the soulful genourosity, the inner demons confronted, that's letting Keith include people around him, making room for others to be themselves, to bring out what's "in here" ["pointing to the heart"]. In any sense it shows us the importance of letting a strong human force in - if we're to have any chance at evolving - in business,
art, in the dark corners of our mind and heart.

This world is full of Bills (in all respect), who we don't need to hear in order to create the space and trust to be who we are, to contribute with our own unique tune.

Dare To Become What You Are

Life is a wild animal. You hope to deal with it when it leaps at you.

In Keith's words it's all about dealing-with-it.

Be it inner deamons or outer shit of others dragging you down. Deal with it! And it's like fears, when truly confronted, they leave.

As is turns out, Keith is said to be the guitarist with the green thumb, the gardener, at home growing lemons like "hand grenades."

I always planted things. I used to grow weed, but I was never there for the harvest, ya' know?

Regardless of his absentees, Keith knows the value of letting (good) stuff grow, let it vent, let it bleed and let it give life to lilltle new buds - passing it on, ya know!

The idea of only venting positivity - or the new quest seen by managers to only deal with "happy" employees, who hides what they truly need to vent in order to function creatively - is thus plain mad in itself!

Soul Survivor

Had a Sunday plan to hang at the local library, not been there in years,
wanted to borrow an old and wellread version of Simone de Beauvoir's
All Men Are Mortal.

Keith of course is the big reader, the librarian.

And he's said to have extraordinary knowledge of
certain topics, a close feel of what he's read and
digested, a contrbutor as he spins his own tails on
the books he's spent time wth.

But instead of a visit to the library, I got caught up in
reading the classic UNCUT magazine's Keith Richards
60 year birthday special Soul Survivor.

Sure. What do you need to know? Keith answeers the interviewer in the open manner of his, sounding sincerly human and unafraid to speak from the heart. Indeed a "mortal man", as all of us, but
Keith doesn't seem to mind at all.

The aura of You can't accuse me of anything I haven't already confessed to is
libarating in itself, and certainly inspiring to pick up on in ones own way.
But being real isn't always as easy as faking it, then again who'd want to fake
anything in this life?

The Ultimate "Consumer Relationship"

How challenging can it be to follow Johnny Lang or the goddamn Spin Doctors?

So ask the Rolling Stones Liberation Front in a "fan protest" posted on 

ClassicRock Magazine. And this is before any Stones tour announcement 

has even been made, though it is of course eagerly anticipated with the 

50th anniversary and all.

In "six demands" to the Stones' way of touring, the protesters want to see a 

stripped down, "original" Stones line-up, the bare bones, no fuzz, fair ticket 

prices and no idiot celebs giving VIP services. For starters. 

A dedication like this is rare. It's a seldom passion for a sound, for a feel to it

and a history with it, honorering the Stones' importance in every line of the 

"protest" - however premature with no new tour officially announced yet :-)

The Prince of Dartford

I never stopped believing in your smile...

Celebrating Keith's birthday by feeling my heartstrings tightening...thanks!

A Style Finds You

You don't find a style...a style finds you, Keith has said.

And I was reminded of his words as I stumbled upon StyleLikeU
and got seduced to stay by the byline "Freedom of expression 
through personal style".

Always one to find true personal style fascinating, I often struggle
with the implied vanity of spending time on looking like myself.
That in contrast to me taking the time to be in touch with myself,
knowing and trusting myself, getting wiser on what makes me
a unique person.

As the young designer Yara Flinn points out:

It's nice to wear clothes that draw attention but if they say more 
about you than you are saying about you, it's pointless.

Some Girls

I really do hate seeing Keith in drag. Of whatever kind.

Luckily it looks like he hates it too. The man is the pure essence of

masculinity to me: Strong, kind, witty and charming. And with that
all encompassing presence in every riff left in him.

Keith is not "some girl" who's name you can't remember. He's not

about to blend in with the masses or bow down to a grinding
numbness.

As it's been said about Keith:

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

Not Feelin' It

Committing major blog sin by not posting for ages! 

I am aware. It didn’t slip my mind. 

I just haven’t been in a blogging mood for a while,

nor have I had the time to do much about it. 

So I try to own my imperfections, just accept the flaws, live with my need for time off at times when others are groovin’ it online, and live well with it!

The main thing is to know yourself. 

In a transition of some sorts anyway. Don’t know much about the future,
but something’s got to click massively for me to find a new joy in the daily routines. 

Not the worst thing to happen anyways. 

Changes are as important as ambiguity, and just as annoying at times. 

Cocksucker Blues

The über famous film of the '72 Exile on Main St. Tour by Robert Frank is by far
one of the rarest opportunitites to dig into the juicy, sexy, raw 70's decadence
- or perhaps better put as a free-range, all-in exploration of living in exile.

The film is often ordered taken down the minute it get's posted, so for as long
as it's here, watch and absorb this plundering soul of the Stones rip it all apart.

Perhaps more disturbing to the Stones when they saw the finished product, 
however, was the degree to which Frank faithfully captured the loneliness 
and despair of life on the road. 
     
Mick Jagger reportedly told Frank, "It's a fucking good film, Robert, 
but if it shows in America we'll never be allowed in the country again." 

  

Brass Balls

I've got to call Clint Eastwood, I think, and ask him how he displays his balls.

Count on Keith to lighten the spirit of my day, at any time. Thank you.

But as the man always shows, it's not all about balls, but of
head & heart & balls. The three go together through life.

Another Man - Another Photographer

While I'm usually drawn to the photos of Mario Sorrenti, I'm not particularly fond of the pictures he's taken of Keith for the Another Man issue.

It looks like the images are worlds apart.

As if one image is of a tired, old man. And another is of a strong, confident man, who'll spit at you for being in his face.

And maybe they're all very real and complex portraits of Keith as a man and and as an artist - though everybody knows "Art is just short for Arthur" - but somehow the photos don't crawl under my skin.

It could be pinned down to "not-matching-the-image", I realize that.

Then again I've looked at more photos of Keith than most, and they don't tend to give off this aura of distance or perhaps even of a dried out man.

But as Keith has said:
You could be sick as a dog, but as long as you've got a suntan, everybody thinks you're in great shape.


Appearances can indeed be deceiving.

Do It Wrong

Obsession is a way of organizing our lives so that we never have to deal with the hard part - the part between being two years old and dying, 
Geneen Roth writes on her Facebook profile.

She's right of course. It's way easier to involve yourself to the point of obsession in others or in the problems of addiction, ego or the world, than it is to silence your inner critic or embrace your own frailty.

Florence - of Florence and the Machine - seems to have it down though. To me she's got a natural kindness to her, as if she accepts the toing and froing of the creative process.

It's quite hard to string all of these pieces of past, present and future and other 
different influences all together. A lot of thought went into what songs should 
go on here to make it seem like a cohesive body of work. I think it's like a scrapbook.

I think she's right too. Life and work and relationships are all patchwork'ish, put together
of good days and bad, of good and bad decissions, and of good and bad interpretations
of what happened.

It follows that doing it wrong is just as important as doing it right, falling down as
important as getting back up.

Stumbling

I suspect this is true for most of us. A stumble that no one saw isn’t nearly as mortifying as a stumble with an audience, as they write at Tiny Buddha.

Not one to hide my errors as such, and still I sometimes find it hard to be openly vulnerable and maybe even in the wrong. The placid personality I haven't fully grown into yet. 

And clinging to the notion of discovering of my own inner tranquility with age might be a forlorn hope - or so it feels.

As you get older, younger people think you know where it's at. But it's a forlorn hope. Because everybody's growing up at the same time, you know, Keith has said. 

Daring to be imperfect is pretty scary in any Western culture. But with it comes a knowledge of ones personal borders and bounderies, and an understanding of what fly's and not for me, a recognition of what I consider to be bullshit in others and in myself.

What She Did For Google

At Google, Sandberg served as vice president of global online sales
and operations in a role that helped build the company's money-gushing 
search-advertising business.

What a track record Sheryl Sandberg has! And she's not afraid of taking on
yet another huge challenge. Actually it's her dream:

My dream is really simple. I think every small business should be using 
Facebook. We're not going to stop until all of them are using it to grow 
their business.

When any company is able to engage our heart - i.e. dreams & longings,
fear & doubts, laughter & spirit - they're here to stay!

Adsense Making Sense?

"Ladies and gentlemen"...trying to build up a momentum before addressing the 

Google Adsense issue.

Not one to praise passive earnings since they rely on other people's actions. 

Not that keen on being in the hands of Adsense either, with no influence on what 

ad gets shown on your blog. 

The again it all comes down to the content you post!

And your visitors' current behaviour online. But mainly it's up to the blogger to 

know the right topics and the key audience of the blog. And more than anything:

to blog consistently about the topics and build up a reader momentum.

Easier said than done, like most in life. But by trying to put my money where my 

mouth is - though I do struggle with it! - I hope to learn about and practise using 

Adsense in this small scale, and at least for awhile. 

But did I say: I do struggle with it!

Airbrushed Reality

Trying to be perfect is such a waste of time. 

And it's never more visible than in election campaigns. 

We currently got it going on in DK. And with voting 1 day away, it's insane to see the amount of time, money & worries being poured into "creating an image". 

Now the idea of a government of the people, by the people, 

for the people, is absolute to me. I'm completely behind democracy as such, with its inherent flaws and failures.

Demo

But democracy only truly works when you're being honest and let the people choose freely among politicians who speak their mind, honestly and without a whole lot of "strategic considerations".

To me, we therefore need to stay away from airbrushing reality. Even when it hurts to 

look at and listen to politicians without a clue of the lives of the people they represent. And even when the few disregard the many, as we've seen for 10+ years in DK.

Better show insecurities and doubts than selling out for a TV slot to pretend on. 

As Keith said about Live Aid:

You're not gonna solve the problems of this world with a few rock concerts 

on a sattelite deal and a knighthood to the guy that put it together. 

That's like tryin' to put a Band-Aid on a rash.

Writer Of The Year

No one else can tell it quite like Keith can!

"Life" is every bit as mind blowing remarkebly as it possible could be. Every page feels like it's written in blood, Keith's pumping, loving, witty blood that is.

"Life" turned into a film, I don't know about.
The idea sounds sort of absurd.
Who could ever, just for an hour or two, play Keith?

But before getting ahead of myself in my doubts, Keith has answered it for me:

There are feelers out at the minute [but] I’m in no rush right at the moment. 
Also, how are they going to find me? The idea of a succession of Keith Richards 
coming down is horrifying.

Blogger Buzz

Blogger Buzz: Blogger’s fresh new look

As you may have heard, things are starting to look a little different across many 
Google products. Blogger is the next product to get a makeover.

Yeah! I've heard and I've noticed. And I have to admit to being oh-so-sensitive to
any GUI changes not made by myself.

Then again I acknowledge that it's my lazy creature of habit talking. And habits
can be changed. Fear not!

As Keith points out:
I start to feel good about records when I realize I can toss away the rule book.

Creepy Communication

The creepy TV show Toddlers & Tiaras would most probably be banned in DK.

Exploiting small kids and their celebrity hungy parents ought to be illigal anyway.
It's chilling to see children - as young as a couple of months old - being tought to
believe their biggest dream is to grow up and look like a prostitute.

Granted, there's a world of difference in culture, education and history between a
priviliged Danish childhood and today's American one.

Mothers of my time
Still, this kind of parenting is a long way from the way my generation of girls was
brought up. The mothers of my time would've fought tooth and nail to give us
different values, choices and ways of expressing our personality.

The worth of an education, of learning to reflect and ajust yourself in your world,
of role models showing you how to dig deeper and understand yourself, is as
fundamental to a young girl's self image as any stories of strong and brave heroines.

Luckily I remember how "me and my girlfriends" made loud protests and walked
out of the cinema when we went to see "Pretty Woman" back in the '90's!

Free-Range Social Media

We've now joined the Free-Range Social Media Movement, started by Brené Brown at ordinarycourage.com.

Behind it all is a foundation of thoughts on how to live, love and work wholeheartedly conncted to ourselves. And Brown emphasizes that above all other ingredients
of living an emotionally healthy life is the importance of loving ourselves.

Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. 
It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in 
the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone; 
I am enough.

Our fundamental need to live authentically is unfolded in The Gifts of Imperfection:
Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.

Creativity, innovation, and truth-telling can feel very vulnerable in our culture which 
is why we often feel deeply inspired when we see it . We’d love to know more about 
how you find the courage to share your authentic self and your work with the world.

Or as Keith says: When it's time to go on, it's time to go on, and when you get up 
there you either croak, puke, fall over, or not.