Tick Tock Tuesday #42 (28 July 2020)

I thought I’d create a new challenge. It is a challenge primarily for me, because I’m new to this platform, and because you don’t really know me yet, nor I you. As my name suggests, I am recovering from a stroke, and I like to push myself in all kinds of little ways… including getting to know the Wonderful World of WordPress. Although this is something I will be doing, I invite you, if this idea takes your fancy, to play along with me and share with me some of your own selections.

My plan is: each Tuesday, until I run dry, I shall post some piece of art with which I have some connection – which has helped to mould me, which makes me tick. Okay, a piece of art is a bit vague – it might be a piece of music, a movie, a book, a painting, or ???? – so my phrasiology is deliberate. It might be anything – I will play this post by ear, so I’m not sure what I’ll think of each week. And, I’ll keep posting on the theme weekly until I run out of ideas.

My rules? Well, I’m not big on rules! My choice will be something with which I feel a connection. That’ll be the important thing, just having some kind of fleeting affection for something probably won’t be enough, unless I’m using my choice as an example of something bigger.

It will be one choice per week – I’m aware that long posts can be quite onerous to read, and I’m in no hurry to complete this so if I have two ideas, I’ll probably hold the second until the next week.

In that same vein, I’ve created this block as a Reusable Block, which I intend repeating for every post on this theme. The block ends with a full-width separator, so if you want to skip ahead each week it doesn’t really matter.

I probably won’t post any lyrics, or any kind of analysis – if you like my choice, the information will be out there for you. But I will try to briefly explain why I feel a connection to my choice, just to try and enhance readers’ understanding of what makes me tick.

I will tag my posts TTT and I will go looking for other posts with that tag. If you’d like to join in, please do the same, or comment, or pingback to this post, and feel free to reproduce my graphic. Lastly, I look forward to reading about what makes you tick.

I’ve come to the end of my road of influential pieces of art. Each individual piece has been unplanned – I might have thought “this piece might go well at christmas” or something, but the pieces themselves have been unplanned. So, I thought I might share some numbers.

Of about 40 posts, around 80% have been contemporary music. I’m using the word “contempory” pretty loosely, other presentations have been about 10% classical music, and 10% film or tv. There was even one of my favourite painter, a while back.

So the first thing I am blown away with is how influential contemporary music has been on me. It’s not really surprising that you’ll often find me listening to music in the evening instead of watching TV.

Within that category of contemporary music, I have been surprised at how much my ear has favoured men over women. It is not a conscious thing, and most likely is a reflection of the state of recording industry.

It’s no real surprise that I’m very tuned in to Black music – I’ve always veered naturally toward soul and reggae, from teenage years so I will just have spent more time listening to these genres. In fact I’m listening to some old Jamaican RockSteady music (from the Fifties and Sixties, a precursor to ska and reggae) as I write this post. There was a fair amount of Irish music in there too, but again, not surprising. Plus, Liverpool always felt that it was at the heart of the world of music.

I was wondering what to do after this series is complete and I think immediately, I will take a short break. Then I had the idea that I might present some of my own photography, as that was quite a big hobby of mine a few years ago. The subject matter will be random, the common thread will be that I was the guy behind the camera. Hopefully those posts will be both nice, quick reads and an enjoyable image to brighten your day. But first, I’m going to take a few weeks.

Lastly, all the posts in this series are tagged TTT, so if you open my blog in its web site, if you particularly enjoyed any of my posts, you can get back to them. I’ve tweaked their titles a little so it should make specific artists easier to find. Or, I created a carousel below: