Hi Coo Kids,
I wrote the following during 2020 so it’s already a period piece but I still think it’s interesting to look back on so I wanted to share it with you:
Wow, the last year has been unique in our modern history. Lockdown and Coronavirus has caused panic, worry, grief, anxiety and chaos to all of us in some way, and it's not over yet.
I decided to comment on this using my senses as that is how we perceive the world around us and the world around us is quite quite different to how it was before.
The look of lockdown - I suppose the most obvious look of lockdown was the wearing of masks. I was fascinated by this. My first thought was that certain ones, especially the black ones make people look like superheroes but then I realised it hides people. It's more difficult to read people's faces. I saw my friend Paul sometime in the middle of 2020 and having a conversation while we were both wearing masks was bizarre. I was also surprised how quickly I forgot about it and just saw it as the norm. Humans adapt to change more quickly than they give themselves credit for.
Another look of lockdown, early on at least, was the empty streets, which really was strange in the extreme. We went out to a bridge to photograph a busy local dual carriageway (while it was completely devoid of cars in the middle of the day) and a young kid driving past us across the bridge stuck a finger up at us, I guess he was assuming that we were judging in some way and it was my first experience of the strong feelings everyone has about what has happened to us all.
The touch of lockdown - Well, there wasn't much touch, was there? I think this is one of the things that affected me most. For the first few months there were members of my family I didn't see and the thought that I couldn't hug them was really really hard. But I went and had a jam with a friend and his brother at one point and shook hands with them afterwards and it felt so good, so important to my humanity, to just share a brief moment of social nicety. But this pandemic has touched everyone. It has scared everyone. I've seen, especially on social media, a huge anger and antagonism between people and people judging one another over the way to deal with it, overcome it, move on from it. I've been guilty of judging people, I'm far from perfect, but I'm trying so hard not to as the most important thing to do beyond the pandemic is to be together. Admit you have differences perhaps, but learn to find some kind of common ground together so that our humanity is intact afterwards. I've seen many moments where people have met up after a break from seeing each other and the happiness, the joy of being together again was palpable.
The smell of lockdown - when we first went into lockdown, there was something specific that changed. I could smell it in the air. I usually get these potent little stabs of nostalgia or emotional muscle memory or something when seasons change and I felt it when the cars stopped, when nature jumped about a little bit more or grew a little more freely, I'm sure I did. Or was it just my imagination?
The sound of lockdown - I decided early on in lockdown to try and be creative to some degree. I started the Coosticks Lockdown Jukebox, playing people's song requests on a sometimes daily basis. I've made it to about 175 songs so far. And I also started working on a full length album, more of which I shall write about in a later entry. But again the cars stopping, no planes in the sky, there was a brief peace. I only noticed it a couple of times but it was amazing.
The taste of lockdown - Bittersweet. I personally got a freedom I had craved for a long time. I got to work from home which I had wanted to do all my working life. I got free time to make a video and new music. But I lost people I cared about, which I would immediately trade that freedom for if I could. And of course, I'm not alone.
Stay positive, stay hopeful, keep going.
There. That's what I was feeling at the time. Lockdown now feels like something I saw in a movie rather than something that actually happened to us all. And the time seemed different, I find it hard to work out when I did what throughout that time. But on the other side of it all, my life has a lot more positivity and a lot more music in it, and that can only be a good thing :)