February - 2017

DREAMING IN THE CITY

The weblog of a dreampunk

Meditation 8 - Invest in experiences, not things

Meditation 8 - Invest in experiences, not things

When I visit my Granny at the retirement village where she lives, I’m always curious about the items that traveled with her from the home she had lived in for 35 years. There is a set of armchairs, a single bed, an ornate, wooden side table, an old cabinet, a chest of drawers, some basic appliances, photograph frames, piles and piles of papers, bottles of medication. The linen is clean but worn – in fact, everything is worn and not least of all my darling old Granny. She does

Meditation 7 - When it comes to possessions, less is more

Meditation 7 - When it comes to possessions, less is more

In my novel Letters to the Black Underground, society revolves sycophantically around consumption, which is undertaken as a compulsive daily ritual in ego-building as a substitute for real substance, real connection, real meaning. In this world, people are alienated from one another, isolated in cluttered apartments crammed full of unopened boxes of plastic crap that was purchased, delivered, and forgotten in the blink of an eye. In this society expression takes the form of 1

Meditation 6 - Stop and consider what will be ‘enough’

Meditation 6 - Stop and consider what will be ‘enough’

Now that we have explored my approach to dressing, something of the psychology of the person upon whom the backpacking trip was inflicted will have become contextualised. Two forces war within me and they are Minimalism and Compulsion. The Minimalist prunes the wardrobe, gives away possessions, packs lightly, goes on a roadtrip without a proper plan and sincerely admires the modest accommodations of the rural village and the freedom of spirit of those who would abandon securi

Meditation 5 - As blessed are the lipsticked as the unshaven, and the wild as free as the tidy

Meditation 5 - As blessed are the lipsticked as the unshaven, and the wild as free as the tidy

Far from being a pretentious vindication of the modus operandi of the women’s glossy magazine, there does seem to be quite a direct link between what you wear, how you see yourself, and thus what you are capable of accomplishing on any given day. I remember watching what seemed to be a legit YouTube clip once about ‘a study’ that tested how well one group of people performed on certain arithmetic tests while wearing a lab coat they were told was a scientist’s coat, versus peo

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Fjara

Fjara

Meditation 12 - You need to rest (or 'the red shoes revisited')

Meditation 12 - You need to rest (or 'the red shoes revisited')

Meditation 10 - The people you love are mortal

Meditation 10 - The people you love are mortal

Grandmother Spider

Grandmother Spider

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YELENA CALAVERA - AUTHOR