be more cousteau
and a daily practice
last week i watched a documentary on explorer and filmmaker jacques cousteau. no, not wes anderson’s ‘the life aquatic,’ although i gotta say that almost feels like a documentary, now knowing that he really did wear the little red hat.
a brief introduction to mr. cousteau, for those uninitiated: he was an officer in the french navy, and after a car accident which left him badly injured, he got into diving. he ended up essentially inventing scuba diving, and travelled the world in a boat, filming everything he did along the way. he opened up the world of the ocean to a lot of people, and as time went on, he became more and more invested in ocean conservation.
but there were a couple of things about jacques cousteau which really inspired me. firstly, he was an explorer and explainer of things to people. he used his keen eye and passion for filmmaking to educate people about the natural world. people called his work ‘documentaries,’ but he preferred to call them ‘adventure films.’ there seemed to be an artistic flair around what he did, even though he was dealing with a scientific subject matter.
it makes me want to be an explorer and explainer! i want to be taken on a scientific expedition and be the resident artist, making little songs and drawings that help people understand deep time, or icelandic volcanoes, or the rock cycle.
the other things which inspired me stemmed from a cousteau quote: ‘everywhere i went, my notebook was a camera.’ the documentary was rich with footage, cousteau really did have a camera nearby almost always.
it made me think about our daily practice as artists, how we interact and record the world on a regular basis which then informs our work down the line. people keep notebooks, cousteau filmed everything, some people draw daily in sketchbooks… heck, i even wrote a tiny song every day for 100 days. although it didn’t feel wholly sustainable (lockdown granted me more time), my tiny songs were a daily practice. a lot of them were just about what i was seeing, thinking or feeling that day. or maybe what i had dreamt about last night. songs were about fetching milk from the shops, buying a christmas tree, missing your friends, or seeing a new type of bird.
i often berate myself for not having a regular practice, something i do every day to keep my artist eye & ear sharp. i definitely notice a difference when i am in a ‘recording’ mood — and that’s not just music recording, but writing down thoughts, drawing things, and taking pictures. when i am recording more, i have more ideas, i make more connections, i have more songs to write.
it is a goal of mine to start and keep a proper journal this year, to have a regular notebook which is fed by daily scribblings and lyric ideas and boring stuff and collected, collaged ephemera from everyday life. i will let you know how i get on.
but, if you’re an artist of any sort, i want to ask you this: do you have a regular practice?
i would love to know what you do on a regular (or semi-regular) basis!
music news
it’s less than a week til the first of my scotland shows! wa wa wee wa! i am very excited to hit up inverness, much changed since the last time i went up when i was 14 to do a public speaking competition (i did not win the competition).
if you’re keen to come, or want to recommend the shows to a friend, here are the details:
17th july ⋆ eden court, inverness ⋆ tickets
18th july ⋆ the blue lamp, aberdeen ⋆ tickets
21st july ⋆ the glad cafe, glasgow ⋆ tickets
things i liked
✶ usher singing confessions part ii in his npr tiny desk set!
✶ listening to a lot of beatenberg lately, especially this song & the album it comes from
✶ dude in shorts sings beautiful vivaldi aria
✶ volcano lightning!
✶ louis armstrong does NOT have a website, get it in your HEAD:
goodbye!!! next week i will be taking a week off! to travel and play music! so i will see you in 2 weeks’ time, with lots of tales to tell. maybe i will see you at a show instead!
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be good,
olivia 🌈