All my maps, readings, and analyses – the midlife loops, the physiology, the rhythms – are tools. They are precise, elegant, even beautiful. But, tools are not the point. They are only meaningful if they lead back to what matters most: connection, presence, and the living pulse of life.
That is the first paragraph of my new post on The Listening Room HQ. You can read the rest here.
My third post on The Listening Room HQ I speak about being on the threshold.
Stepping across a threshold isn’t just about crossing a line—it’s about entering a space where presence, movement, and attention meet.In this post, I explore how The Listening Room HQ provides a place for men to be heard, to hear themselves more clearly, and to engage in the subtle work of noticing and being present. You can read the full post here: On The Threshold
My latest post in The Listening Room HQ is about what happens when creative practice enters the space of men’s work.
Creative practice has a way of loosening what words alone can’t reach. It’s not about art as product, but about opening. A way men can meet themselves, each other, and others differently.
It’s not theory or performance, it’s a way of grounding, disarming, and opening what’s otherwise hard to reach.
In spirit, it sits not far from Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files, a place where correspondence becomes a kind of soul map. The Listening Room HQ works in a similar way though with men’s practice: gathering fragments, gestures, and creative practice into a field of shared soul work.
You can read it here: Creative Practice in Men’s Work.
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights turned. The 4th anniversary edition airs Monday 14th, 3-4:10pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
This year, the anniversary programme is a little different than usual. Trials and tribulations didn’t allow for the several costumary purpose composed pieces, aside from mine and Francisco Silva’s Lucid One. The lyrics of Lucid One have my poem 80 as starting point, adapted to song by Francisco’s chatgpt, then, on a second round of singing the song, by him. It was a very interesting creative experience.
My Loss and December: Death, Sérgio Rocha’s Seclusões (excerpt), digei de bairro’s MG B GT (pre-master), Ned Swarbrick’s Mr. O’Brien (mix 1.1), João Diogo Zagalo’ Lotar n.º 4 and Boxmonsters’ Holligans and Car Crash fall under that umbrella.
I picked two songs composed on purpose for previous anniversary editions. Mine and Francisco’s When Joe Came By, from the 1st anniversary edition, and Sweet Peace, by Bill Rivers and I, from last year’s anniversary show, here on Oh Bobby (Bill Rivers & Simon Wayward) version, from their album Swim The Universe.
There’s the usual assortment of songs, another round of surprises, picked for me by a few friends.
Because the songs represent me, because I may like them… Because…
Manuel Carvalho picked The Pixies’ Hey; António Cunha Suki Waterhouse’s Supersad, Paulo Navarro caroline’sTell Me I Never New That (feat. Caroline Polachek), Matt Hutchison Lyn Collins’ Think (About It) and Rui Pimenta Why Don’t You Stay by American Music Club.
As for both Francisco’s instrumental acoustic version of The Asphalt World and my soft instrumental electric stripped down version of The Asphalt World. Francisco thought it a odd choice for me to plays as far as Suede’s covers go, and sent me an impromptu short version of it.
At 0:55 it’s most likely the world’s shortest version of The Asphalt World. Mine runs past 10 minutes. It’s a one go, raw, unfiltered, no effects, aside from a little vibrato arm, and my micro jack amp distortion, no solos, also impromptu, played on a kitchen bench, purely for the joy of it version. Most of what seems effects, it’s my fretting fingers.
Lucid One lyrics
Sleepless nights, stuck in motion
Elevators fade, no clear emotion
Crex crex crex — the artach calls
Lucid tiles in echo halls
The megaphone speaks, louder than books
Slogans win where no one looks
Moral weight too hard to lift
We float inside this aimless drift
The empire of futility
Masqueraded as ability
Symbols fail, the noise gets loud
We vanish slowly in the crowd
Resperidone, the new tea brew
Quiet minds in static view
Fork in the road, by the sea we stand
Bathymetry traced in soul and sand
Invisible paths, the labyrinth sings
We mistook noise for gravity’s rings
You want the house still, free of harm
But the woman bangs the pots — her charm
The empire of futility
Attired in nobility
Mirrors turn, the spiral grows
Stagnant waters, no one knows
(Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro)
Poem #80
poem 80
sleepless nights,
stuck
perpetual movement
fading through the elevator
crex crex crex crex makes the artach
hearth and home
lucid tiles echoing
the megaphone is easier than read serious books
slogans are easier than moral inventory.
the empire of futility
disguised as art, intellectualism
the sound mirrors, a spiral
a stagnant pool of nothingness
resperidone, the new chamomile
there’s a road with a fork
for you and me by the sea
bathymetry of the soul
invisible pathways
labyrinth, the song
mistaken noise for gravity
symbols for substance
brought us here
you want the house quiet
but a woman bangs the pots
monks don’t worry about money
terror dreams, rage
somatic overload
the lucid one in a house of somnambulists
fog can’t be fought, what it erases
is watched
don’t go back to sleep
the messiness of desire
recycle, renewal, redemption
like a benediction
all the plants are watered
(Raquel Pinheiro)
Tracklist:
01: Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro – When Joe Came By
02: Raquel Pinheiro – Loss
03: Pixies – Hey (Manuel Carvalho)
04: Sérgio Rocha – Seclusões (excerpt)
05: Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro – Lucid One
06: digei de bairro – MG B GT (pre-master)
07: Suki Waterhouse – Supersad (António Cunha)
08: Boxmonsters – Holligans
09: Francisco Silva – The Asphalt World (acoustic excerpt)
10: Talking Heads – Burning Down the House (Raquel Pinheiro)
11: caroline – Tell Me I Never New That feat. Caroline Polachek (Paulo Navarro)
12: Raquel Pinheiro – The Asphalt World
13: Oh Bobby – Sweet Peace – (*)
14: Lyn Collins – Think (About It) (Matt Hutchison)
15: Ned Swarbrick – Mr. O’Brien (mix 1.1)
16: João Diogo Zagalo – Lotar n.º 4
17: Boxmonsters – Car Crash
18: Raquel Pinheiro – December: Death
19: American Music Club – Why Don’t You Stay (Rui Pimenta)
All previous shows on mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/infoyeye/playlists/amazing-songs-other-delights|www.mixcloud.com/MondoBizarreMagazine
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