Nanowrimo Winner

It's all over. I have finally managed to reach the target of 50,000 words. I am writing about this not to bask in the glory of this achievement (well perhaps a little) but to highlight what a good idea having a target is for a writer. Feeling a part of an online community is something that does help to motivate. It's also amazing how many words can accumulate when you work steadily on an idea.

It wasn't easy. There were many days when I sat in front of my computer and started falling asleep but had to wake myself up in order to complete the daily target which was around 1,600 words. For most of this month I played catch up as there were two days when I wrote nothing. Last night I felt a little possessed by some sort of writing demon and wrote ferociously until I finished it.

Now, I feel like more hours have been added to my day. A big weight has been taken off me and I no longer have to write to keep guilty thoughts at bay. The editing is next and the ironic thing is that this will involve reducing what I have written. Redundant sections will be chopped, language will be strictly scrutinised and deleted if deemed unnecessary.

The hardest part is then knowing what to do with this finished work. Do I send it to publishers, self-publish, post it here or do nothing? Writers have it harder than musicians in many ways as they have to find a way to share their work and of course it takes more effort and willingness on behalf of potential readers than listeners. If anyone has any ideas on this matter, please comment or write to me. I am thinking of taking a DIY approach but am not sure yet just how that will look.

Nanowrimo - Nearing The End

My head is sore today from writing or perhaps the change in weather which is slowly breaking down my immune system. The good news is that I have fulfilled my quota of words but the bad news is that if I keep going at this rate, I will finish on December 2nd.

I'm at 32,2116 words which I think is not bad at all and I still have some ideas to help me stretch out my story. That's the funny thing about my current writing. When I finish the 50,000 quote required to be a Nanowrimo winner, my first task will be to go back over my story again and begin the editing process where I will probably delete a good chunk of the work which took a great deal of effort to create.

I am enjoying being under pressure to write and sometimes I wonder if I could maintain this every day. The most satisfying thing is how quickly words build up when you maintain a regular writing practice. Doing this would be tough but think of all I would write. I guess this is what full-time writers do. They have their times for writing every day and their times for resting like any other job.

First things first, only another ten days to go and a little less than 18,000 words to write.

From Bratislava to Vienna

It's been a while since I have taken my steel horse and gone on a journey of any considerable distance which is why last weekend's trip to Vienna was particularly enjoyable but a bit painful. It was a very foggy day, but at least it was calm with no rain.
The logic behind just wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and a fleece was that I would sweat less. It kind of worked but it meant that when I stopped, I really felt the cold. I'm not used to cycling in such low temperatures and perhaps I was wishfully thinking that it's still summer.

 The hardest part was getting out of Bratislava but once I found the bike route, it was pretty easy to follow. Crossing the border which is so close to Bratislava was a thrill as I imagined how difficult it once used to be to enter into either country. Some of the small towns in Austria along the route are really quite nice and it would have been easy to stop there for a while if I'd had a bit more time.

Hainburg an der Donau is particulary interesting mainly because of the castle perched on a hill. You can't really see it in the picture below because of the thick fog but it's a destination I would like to return to when I have more time.

I think the hardest part mentally was the road through the Donau-Auen National Park. There was a bike path all the way but the fact that it was straight with no interesting curves or turns made it challenging. This is the reason why I ditched this path and went back onto main roads. I was in need of changes in scenery and some twists and turns. Of course I got a bit lost but with the help of some locals I soon got back on track.

My sugar levels dropped radically just before reaching Vienna and I had to binge on some chocolate to get me the rest of the way there. As expected, it took a long time to get from the edge of the city into the centre but it was a pleasant ride with bike paths most of the way. Vienna has an impressive biking infrastructure which I really enjoyed using. Unfortunately Bratislava has a far inferior system but here's hoping that this will change.

To come back I took the train as I was exhausted at the end, satisfied but tired. It's definitely possible to do a return trip in one day but it really would take a lot more energy and a higher fitness level than I currently have to do it.

Next up, (perhaps in the spring) is Budapest once again.

A Novel in One Month

November 1st. Today is the first day of Nanowrimo, an online writing project I have signed up to do for the second time. It means that every day of this month I have to write in order to reach the target of 50,000 words. It's a massive amount to write and I feel daunted by it to say the least but my plan is to take it one day at a time.

On the website they advise you to tell everyone you know that you are taking part in this which is why I am writing here. I want to exclaim loud and clear that in one month's time I will have a collection of 50,000 words. The logic behind this is that the more people you tell, the greater the feeling of failure if you don't complete the word count. The last time around I told students, friends and felt like walking up to strangers to tell them,  'Yes, I am taking part in Nanowrimo and I will write a novel / a large collection of words in one month.'

Right now, I have no idea if these words will form something coherent and interesting or not. That is the beauty of the project. Participants are encouraged to simply write and write without editing. This comes later. Now it's all about writing and filling blank pages with words.

Who Needs a Map?

The stereotype regarding men not using maps is unfortunately true for me. I don't like maps and prefer to get lost and then find my way again (not only in a spiritual sense).

Yesterday is a perfect example. I had a lesson on a street I'd never been to before which was the first warning. Before leaving home I did check the address online and made a mental note of a street beginning with the letter 's' that I had to cross before taking a right at a street name ending with 'eho'.

To my mind I was well-prepared so out I went.

Of course you can imagine what happened. I found one street beginning with the 's' I was looking for but it didn't lead me to the street name ending in 'eho'.

I don't have a smart phone and of course I hadn't taken my map with me. Time was ticking and the last thing I needed was to be late for the first lesson with this student. Thankfully people are quite helpful in Bratislava but unfortunately the street I was looking for didn't seem to be popular. After asking many people, including one who even checked on her smart phone while nervously looking up in anticipation of her bus (mental note -  don't ask people for directions at bus stops), I decided to walk in the direction I instinctively guessed it was.

The problem now is that I may not learn my lesson because I found the street without a map and was even early for the lesson. All the stress soon faded once I spotted the street name which matched to the one on the student's business card. All the anxiety was forgotten replaced by manly pride.

Baring All

After coming back from a fantastic run I feel I have banished my demons for a while at least. By 'fantastic' I don't mean that this word applies to my performance but rather to the feeling gained from it. There really is no better way to clear the mind and to get the endorphins working.

I can see why Christopher McDougall in his book Born To Run advocates it so much. He believes that, like the title suggests, we are indeed made / born to run. This is how we humans hunted in the past. We were able to tire animals but by running them into submission before killing them. Before reading about this I always thought that we were not made to run at all but running was simply something I enjoyed despite the fear of injuries from doing it too much.

What he argues is that our methods are all wrong and that we should run naturally without trainers. This whole concept of barefoot running is very interesting and makes sense. If we wear thick padding under the soles of our feet, our feet don't react naturally to the different contours of the ground beneath us so we are blocking our muscles from working naturally. The problem is that how do you change your methods of running or indeed walking after wearing modern footwear for so long?

Recently I spent a small fortune on trainers called 'Vivobarefoot' which are designed to let our feet do most of the work. Needless to say, after one run I was in agony. Descending stairs was particularly gruelling for my calf muscles. I gave it a week and tried again with slightly better results. The biggest problem was trying to change my technique and land on the top of my foot in order to put less pressure on my back and spring forwards. It's difficult to change habits that are deeply ingrained into the body and mind and it does take the fun out of just running without thinking.

I haven't used this trainers for a while but that's not to say I am giving up on this method. For now I am happy to be able to run without injuries but little by little I will try out these barefoot trainers. I don't expect them to elevate me to superfitdom status but hopefully gain the benefits that the author has gained from using this barefoot technique.

For more about the barefoot debate -

Christopher McDougall's Website

Missing Something(s)

I don't like being materialistic and I try not to own too many things but fail miserably when it comes to music. I don't regret this or feel ashamed about this but when I am away from my vinyl collection and guitar, I feel like I am not quite the same.

Listening to music on tinny laptop speakers is horrible really but I guess it's a small comfort. As for headphones, the advantage is that I can appreciate the nuances you don't always hear when listening to music but (sob, sob) my head usually hurts after using them for a short time. On top of this there is always the fear that I am damaging my hearing by exposing my ears to such a concentration of sound which is being channelled directly at my ear drums.

Playing vinyls or CDs on something other than a laptop is so much more of an enjoyable experience and makes me appreciate the album format for what it is.

Now when it comes to the guitar it's a different matter altogether. This is the tool I use to express what goes on in my head or what is made up from the imagination. It is the instrument that holds options that writing just doesn't have. I do love writing stories or these snippets I post here for that matter, but the combination of words and music is something special. I love the spark, the new idea and also the thought that the next song will be better than anything that I've done before. The latter is the driving force. First of all I need to prove to myself that I can create a new song that I feel is god and only then does it come to the point of possible performance. There are many songs that I have never shared and never will. They are like diary entries that have been recorded to remember them but that's all.

So I guess all this does make me materialistic but I feel I can justify it by saying it's also very much a spiritual thing.

On The Move / Initial Observations

Moving is always tough for me. It amazes me that people can move once a year or even more and not lose their minds. I guess I have mixed feelings about it. I admire and am confused by these people.

It's funny how often people look at me and think I'm one of these travellers who can't stay put in one place for too long. When I tell them it's not true, I usually get the feeling that they are not convinced.

Ireland 22 or so years and Poland for nearly 8 years and that's it. Okay so I have spent at least one month a year in Oxford for the last four years but that has been for work purposes and usually out of necessity.

Now it's Bratislava. It's not so different from Kraków in some ways but very different in others. Initial observations are that there are less small shops and markets to buy fruit and veg than in Kraków. This is a bit disappointing as I feel I am being forced to use Tesco a little too often. The architecture here has more remnants from the communist / socialist past whereas in Kraków, there have been many attempts to remove these traces of history. People are generally friendlier here and are willing to help if they can. In Kraków I often found people to be a mixed bag, sometimes friendly and sometimes they looked and behave as if they hated every human on Earth including themselves.

I'm digressing here though, although my heading has allowed for this. It's strange to move again. I'm starting from the bottom again but this time with experience of what it means to live in a totally different place and know no one. It's still weird and fitting in seems like a big task. I do have to remind myself that I haven't even been here one week and yet in some ways it feels like I've been here much longer.

Selfies - Everyone Is At It

What is the big fascination with 'selfies'? It is hardly a new idea yet for some reason it has become very popular since the widespread use of the smart phone. In the past taking a photo of yourself would have been deemed an act of vanity or necessity if there was no one else to take your photo at an interesting sight. Recently it seems that it doesn't matter if someone else can take your photo or not. What's important is the ability to capture yourself and perhaps others in a photo taken by yourself. What is fascinating is that this is considered cool. Why is this the case? How can something so self-absorbing not be frowned upon and ridiculed?

It seems that even animals are getting in on the act. Recently I even heard of a story of a black macaque monkey who took selfies of himself.This cheeky monkey began snapping away after snatching the camera from photographer David Slater. The website Wikimedia has since published some of these photos stating that they belong in the public domain as the monkey took these photos and not the photographer. These photos have since gone viral making this particular monkey more famous than he realises.


If even monkeys are at it, what hope is left to end this vain act of self-photography?

Link to video about the monkey selfie.

An Unedited Entry

I am not going to go very deep into certain matters but simply give an overview of what I think. This may perhaps be very simple and not very well thought out but it's what I am feeling at this current moment in time having briefly read through some of the events going on in the world today, mainly the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the shooting down of the MH17 plane in Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists.

You might argue that I have not used my words correctly in describing the above and have a lot to argue against this but this but the main point of this blog entry is to express sadness that these things are happening and have happened. I can also count myself very fortunate to be in a position that is very far removed from such events and cannot imagine how it must be to directly be involved or affected by them.

Of course there are a lot of tragic things going on in the world that are not highlighted in the media that I often turn to such as the BBC, The Guardian and other social media. Often I am desensitised to news reports of the loss of life but sometimes it is too hard to ignore the darkness of human nature and the horrific actions this can lead to.

Right now, I appreciate where I am and consider my problems petty in comparison to others. I also contemplate if it is worthwhile to be informed at times. I know it is important to know what is going on in the world even if it makes me feel that my own existence is quite unimportant in the grander scheme of things. However, I do still believe that little gestures count for something and have to hold on to the idea that we all do make a difference.

To Bus or to Train It

There's something romantic about travelling by train, the sound of click, clack as old trains rattle along tracks through villages, towns and countryside that is sometimes not accessible any other way. In Poland recently there has been a surge of new bus companies springing up with really low prices and attractive routes that is putting a struggling train network under more pressure and rightly so.
Despite this, I still opted for the train on a recent trip from Przemysl to Kraków.

An old train took us as far as Rzeszów before it broke down. It was bad news for everyone but particularly for those who had their journey abruptly cut short only half a kilometre or so from the station. We had to wait while the burly driver and conductors ran up and down the train until it was towed back to the station. At least another train was arranged which was more than what happened on an Austrian train I travelled partly on not so long ago. After the train had broken down in the middle of nowhere, we had to wait for about an hour for a bus to come and take us to the nearest u-bahn stop and not the destination on our ticket, the main train station in Vienna.

So, back to the Polish journey. The train I was on was due to terminate in Tarnów but I found out from some Ukrainian travellers that there was a connecting train from there to Kraków. I was even able to buy a ticket from the conductor for the corresponding train and was told that this train would wait for us but we had to be fast.

When the train reached Tarnów, we quickly got out but our train was nowhere to be seen. Had it gone already? No. It arrived fifteen minutes later. This gleaming, modern, smooth train was quite a contrast to the previous two trains of the day. There was even information about the name day of saints on that particular day (very useful to know) and a speedometer which was quite erratic to say the least and turned off possibly due to the embarrassment of the driver as the journey was incredibly slow. At one point the conductor suggested to smokers that they go for a cigarette as we had to wait for three trains to pass by before we could go. The Ukrainians looked as bemused as I felt with the whole train experience and I am sure they were thinking how much better things are in their country regarding train travel.

The train stopped at every stop and the only thing that kept me interested was comparing the numerous modernised stations with the old discarded ones that had been abandoned to the past. Despite the modernisations, it all seemed a false as it would have been a lot faster to take a bus. I hope that PKP (the national train association) will sort it out and stop using the excuse of renovations causing delays as this can only be the case for so long. People tell me that trains used to be better in the past so perhaps all these modernisations are only for show but have no real purpose or perhaps we need to remain patient for better things to come. The fact that PKP provides bus services on some lines suggests otherwise.

The Language of Music

In Poland, it seems that the majority of songs played on the radio are in the English language, but by law radio stations have to broadcast at least thirty-three per cent of songs in the Polish language. What I often find strange is the high number of Poles who choose to sing in English rather than in their mother tongue. Does the amount of airtime given to English-based music cause this? Does it really matter what language the songs are sung in? Is music universal and can linguistic barriers be crossed because of the catchiness of the melody? Do the majority of people even focus on the lyrics? A lot of different questions regularly come to mind when thinking about the debate between language and music and to get some other perspectives on this, I have asked the opinions of musicians, Jan Řepka (the Czech Republic), Peter 'Petiar' Lachký (Slovakia) and Jakub Bugała (Poland).

            
What struck me is that, unlike in Poland where Jakub estimates only about ‘ten per cent or less use only Polish’, both Jan and Peter claim, that in their opinions, a very small percentage of people sing in the English language in their respective countries. Jan claims that only about one-fifth of Czech musicians do so while Peter says that only about five per cent of his musician friends perform in the English language. Obviously the Czech, Slovak and Polish languages have their differences despite being part of the same language group. Rhyming seems to be more of a challenge in Polish and perhaps the Czech and Slovakian languages are easier to manipulate and mould to the songwriter’s needs.

            
How important is it to perform in your own native language and what type of audience do musicians aim for? Jan says ‘Primarily, I think it is important to master the language you want to use, especially when it is supposed to be used in an artistic way.‘ Perhaps being judged by people in your own language makes some musicians shy away from singing in their first language. Jan suggests that the songwriter may try to ‘mask the weaknesses of the lyrics by using another (usually) English.’ Peter, on the other hand, likes to play with words which obviously requires a great understanding of the ‘hidden nooks of the language.’ To do so requires skill in any language and especially in one that is not your native one. For Jakub using a ‘non-native language creates a mask that makes you somehow less vulnerable’, which echoes Jan’s thoughts.

            
When choosing to write and perform in another language, there is the opportunity of having a wider audience to reach out to. Jakub chooses to write in English as ‘English is a language of international communication.’ He makes the point that a lot of artists use the Internet as a means of sharing their music and thinks that the majority of Internet users are ‘English native speakers or people who commonly use English as their second language.’ ‘I’m more into translating my songs into Polish or maybe German as I’m more likely to play in those countries than English-Speaking ones,’ says Jan. In Peter’s case the difficulty of translating into English proved to be the stumbling point and has led to him continuing to sing in the Slovakian language. He describes a time when he did try to translate his lyrics into English but states that while doing so, he ‘couldn’t find a proper word, expression or we couldn’t fit it into the rhythm of the song.’ Of course, it’s not always so easy to transfer ideas from one language to another and there is frequently the fear of what is lost in the process.

           
Rather unsurprisingly, all agree that the lyrics of the songs are key to the integrity of their work, although Jakub believes that lyrics and music can be separated ‘by treating lyrics as a pure rhythmical and sonic form.’ Out of the three, only Jakub writes most of his songs in the English language, however, Peter says that when comparing the English language to Slovakian, the former ‘has much shorter words than in Slovakian and is easier to rhyme.’ Finding more ways of expressing yourself is certainly a valid reason for using another language other than your own and it can be another argument on the board for those who do so.

            
Do people pay attention to lyrics? Peter believes that they do and says that the type of people he performs to, ‘know that the music is based on lyrics.’ Jan says, ‘Of course you pay more attention when someone sings in your native language.’ This suggests that singing in a foreign language in front of people from your own country can potentially alienate them. Jakub plays predominantly in front of Polish audiences and he is not so sure if people listen carefully to his lyrics. He says, ‘I have received only a few comments about my lyrics.’ He has only recently released his first album (The Spin, November 2013), so perhaps this will generate feedback on the lyrical side of his songs.

            
Summing up, it seems that the musical genre, the audience the musician is aiming his/her music at and the ability of the artist to use language are the key points here and these will ultimately determine the language used and probably the quality of it. Perhaps using your native language makes you more exposed in front of your home audience but the possibility of making a connection with them is arguably easier. The choice of language is a subjective one based on the individual’s language abilities but it is obvious that all three musicians and musicians in general would like to be understood and appreciated by their audiences whatever language they perform in.

Jakub Bugała - http://inqbator.bandcamp.com/

Peter ‘Petiar’ Lachký - http://petiar.sk/v-krajine

Jan Řepka - http://www.janrepka.cz/