What are Bulerías? Imagine a dance that is wild, joyous but entangled with all the complexities of the human condition. Not only that, but a dance that requires a huge amount of discipline and skill. These are how I would describe Bulerías. Bulerías are a style of flamenco that hooked me in from…

“It is suicide to be abroad, but what is it to be at home? A lingering dissolution.” All That Falls, Samuel Beckett Oh, the melancholy. When I found this quote, spoken by a character in one of Beckett’s plays, it spoke to me. Particularly during the restrictions of Covid. …

It had been raining for a week. The otherworldly luminescence of Cádiz province was dulled to the greyish tinge of my home country. It was like being without your glasses. I didn’t mind it so much. Whilst I love to be in a sunny country, I enjoy the permission to…

“si vinieran los gitanos haría con tú corazón collares y anillos blancos” Romancero Gitano, Federico García Lorca A few years ago I threw out two boxes of my childhood memories. It was full of school books, pictures, letters, and tokens. It broke my heart. There was some upheaval in my…

I’m not really. Or am I? I did the time. I read the theory, went to the protests, stood up to machismo when I saw it. That’s not to say my protesting days are over, but I am looking for a new way. Four years ago, on the 8th of…

I write my best work when I have no time to write. I don’t deny that it’s a problem. Writers need time to write. As they say, a large chunk of the writing process is in the editing, and the more time you have to edit, the better. Yet writing…

It really is. I have read newsletters about complex webs of funding streams, which involves spreadsheet financial wizardry I don’t have the capability, or desire, to master. I am trapped in a self-referential algorithm of articles about writing, which angrily instruct me what to do and what not to do…

“The East has recognised long ago that that which is good for man (sic)* — for his body and his soul — must also be agreeable, even though at the beginning some resistances must be overcome.” — Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving Fromm, a German Jewish psychologist, contrasted the Eastern philosophy of ‘agreeableness’ with the “Western concept of discipline”, which intimates that what is good for you must be painful. Reading that was a lightbulb moment for me, as the following phrases echoed around my head:

From Bagpipes and Flamenco to Rave and Raggaeton — I used to feel lukewarm about both Scottish traditional music and electronic music. That is until I discovered Martyn Bennett. I grew up partially in Glasgow, and traditional Highlands and Islands music culture was a world away. Whilst rave and techno was blowing up in the 90’s, traditional music was…