Hey,
I come in peace!
I am a musician, composer and teacher whose songs have led towards a parallel path of poetic exploration. Having been a big fan of this site for a while now - it has been a singular pleasure to see Substack deservedly and continually grow. And not just in terms of numbers/engagement. The chance of finding an article/note here that inspires - feels like it is also on a powerful upward curve. Social media has become tiresome for me - so this has come at the right time. For context - I have to go back to one of my earliest experiences using the internet. Internet centres! When wifi was not yet around fully for the general public in the UK (where I am based).
1997. India. On tour with J-Life. Between gigs we all sat in an internet cafe - stunned at being able to email, search for stuff, and generally get a picture of the potential of this tool that brought the 21st century to us - in advance. Every page loading - felt like a miracle. How did this work? What won't this change? And - how great can we be great when ideas converge and produce this!
The internet seem magical - where the gap between science fiction in books, comics, graphic novels, radio, cinema and reality - had suddenly moved closer. There was time to absorb this somewhat - as we were not immediately continuing this interaction while gazing at a mobile phone - as most were not yet that powerful! Or plentiful - at least amongst my friends…
But apart from pages often taking time to load - the net felt positive and exciting. At worst - only frustrating as search terms had to be super specific, or tech issues slowed things down to a stutter (some things have stayed familiar - video conferencing issues anyone?!!!)
I don't need to say how much things have changed and how much the power of the internet has been a driving part of this. I feel in the intervening years - sadly - that the initial positive potential became warped - as with any invention - the eventual wide usage - contains light and dark. Wide-spread usage was never guarenteed to be necessarily beneficial. The floating feeling of those initial months of using the internet - and genuinely starting to learn things - has never left me. But - it is still all too rare. Even as we now can stream, share massive files and stand on the edge of yet more acceleration - with AI, Quantum computing and beyond. The method of transfer outstripping the quality of the content - could become a permanent chasm. No wonder the community and warmth emanating from this website is (to me) so noticeable.
In the spirit of what I have enjoyed here for the last few months - I will be posting poems, lyrics, a bunch of favourite quotes (more daily) and longer thoughts (more weekly). I hope sites like this can help tip the balance towards making this mind-blowing technology so taken for granted - into a tool to help lift us all skyward.
For those interested - some music links are here:
https://robertmitchell.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.instagram.com/robertmitchellmusic/
http://www.bucksmusicgroup.com/artists/336-robert-mitchell
https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/staff/professor-robert-mitchell
https://www.youngmusicmakers.co.uk/lessons/piano
I have a second collection of poems/lyrics coming out soon! Thanks to a series of interactions that could not have happened without some life changing connections made online - this is to be released on Common Tone (Seattle, USA). More on that - at a later date (and plenty of reference to the first collection on the way too).
The more daily things will be free. Lookout for many a quote on Notes. More weekly stuff and audio (narration/music) will be for subscribers. Please leave any comments (and especially quotes that you love to share).
These screens are always on - they should always be inspiring!