Meet Me In The Air

Hi everyone,
I have a family that I love. As every day goes by, I give thanks for that blessing and am aware that life can take unexpected turns, so it’s good to not delay fun. Sharon, Liam, Elroy and I discovered a while ago we’re a hot band, not a mere novelty act! As Liam says, “Hey do you like family bands? Neither do we but don’t worry, since we started microdosing we’ve transcended the trad family band pitfalls.”

Through January, we had 10 shows in the UK, Ireland and Europe and I think there was something special going on. You folk who attended seemed to think so too. Thank you!

Just after soundcheck in London, we filmed a video for the song “Meet Me In The Air” which was born as a family jam. It was filmed by Marc Swadell and I edited it in my hotel room over the following weeks on tour with the Mac.

Here it is in all its smokey, bow tied glory. 

Cheers 

Neil

From the album Lightsleeper
Directed by Neil & Liam Finn
Cameras: Marc Swadel and Shaun Dyos
Lighting: Eden Morrison
Edited by Neil Finn
Filmed at EartH in Hackney, London
Tour Manager: Caron Malcom
Thanks to Marc Swadel for making it happen and to EartH for allowing us to shoot in their beautiful room.

Keep It Coming

Hello good folk,
and yes, you are good folk indeed. Judging from the comments I read on the journal pages, there are many warm and intelligent people tuning in, with the exception of you, Ingrid Birtwhistle. Your mocking of my prominent and asymmetric nose is uncalled for!

Spirit of The Stairs seemed to get a lot of requests, so I’m throwing that one at you. I’ll keep this up over the next few weeks. It’s fun to relearn these songs, it feels like it’s good for my brain plasticity. I find it quite mysterious how they came about in the first place and in some cases even more mysterious that they didn’t make albums, as they stand up quite well now compared to some of the shit we did. Thanks for reminding me.

I am also including a wee video that dropped into my inbox today, a reminder of how small victories with neighbours can make the day feel that much better.

I have been checking out news sources that you recommended and have found some good ones. Slow news as a concept does exist as I thought it would. I was already aware of great journalists like Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, many shows on NPR, ABC and SBS (Australia), RNZ, but have also enjoyed exploring these sites I was unaware of:

Truthdig
All Sides - media bias ratings
The Conversation
Media Bias / Fact Check
Delayed Gratification - The Slow Journalism Magazine

I recognise that many of these outlets veer towards the left but they do maintain an in-depth approach and mostly balanced commentary. David Brooks has a more conservative view and good things to say in the New York Times and the Shields and Brooks show on PBS NewsHour. The Economist is a good conservative source too but you have to pay for it.

Looking back through my tweets, I must admit I was in better form early on and might throw a few of them at you from time to time. One of them from 6 years ago was like a strange lateral premonition.

I’m so glad Donald Trump is not my uncle

— neil mullane finn (@NeilFinn) June 17, 2015

On that note, perhaps you might want to subscribe to Mindful Resistance. He has some good perspective on that guy.

OK, I’ll leave you with those thoughts ….go well

Neil

Forgotten Gems, Deep Cuts

I have obscure songs, deep cuts that are largely… no, hang on... comprehensively ignored by the gatekeepers, arbiters of public interest, and will never appear in an end of year "best of" list, but some of you are passionately attached to, bless your cotton socks. I get requests for them on stage and off stage. I am rarely if ever prepared enough to do them justice.

But now in my new once a week mode, I am tempted to delve into the beautiful obscurities and give them some love. I will start with one about our dear old dog Lester that gets requested quite often.

You will have ideas I’m sure, so throw them my way and I’ll try to render them with some affection and respect for an idea that once saw the light of day (many didn’t.)

I’m intent on making parameters and conditions that I will be able to live up to and not leave us all with a sinking feeling that I promised much and couldn’t deliver.

So, less words this week and a little music to get the ball rolling.

Love you all

Neil

Backwards and forwards

A lot has happened in this last week. Unfortunately, we have had to postpone shows which no one in Fleetwood Mac would ever take lightly. It’s very upsetting, but good health is the most important thing and the music can’t keep happening without it. Sorry to all of you who were making plans to be there. We will make it up to you. 

So much wonderful response to my last post about the news. I wrote replies to many of you on the comments section, does that work, did you find my replies? I couldn’t respond to everybody but so appreciate how much thought you put into it. I am looking at the sources you suggested, might have a few links on the site once I have found the good oil. 

I do like George Monbiot in The Guardian, unflinching in his values and managing to portray our planet’s existential dilemma without hopelessness. 

I wasn’t really suggesting we ban cars, just wanted to show you how good I look on a horse (35 years ago!) 

More to come on that front…… meanwhile……

Back in 2001, I developed a website called NilFun. Rakai Karaitiana was the talented designer who helped me make some fun ideas happen. Most of the interactive pieces he did in Flash, which was a problem for some viewers, but there were some really interesting and humorous things on the site, musical games, audio visual artworks. Aside from these, we also did several webcasts from my basement - an hour or two of unscripted music and chat and lots of laughs with friends manning cameras. People were emailing in from around the world: “I’m in Stockholm, it’s 3am and snowing outside, watching you and loving it.”

Although that website had a limited lifespan, it was always my intention to use some of the experience we gathered to fashion a new and better place for people to come and explore and share music, visual treats and ideas. I have kept my fascination with live streaming well fed most recently with the album Out Of Silence, but as for the bigger picture, somehow life kept throwing (mostly good) distractions in my way and I let things lie for many years.

But now with more focus and space to think, I am hoping some of these threads can be picked up. In the meantime, I am giving you links to a sample page of NILFUN goodies to explore and directions for how these will work on which browsers. Some of you may have trouble getting these pieces to work, so apologies in advance It took me couple of days on my laptop to open up the work.

Take a look if you can. There was a video for the song Rest Of The Day Off from around the same time that shows me on the computer interacting with the website, and a great shot of me swinging our dog Milla round with a piece of seaweed on the beach.

Have Fun

Neil

Waiting For News

Thank you for your positive response to my first post. It's given me encouragement to push the boat out a bit further and ask for your opinion.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I would love to find a regular news source whose agenda is to present a truthful, in depth account of current events with no political bias or sensationalism and accordingly…. no pressure to get the news out first. I guess the New Yorker does this in print, Time and Newsweek would claim to do this as well but where is the TV or radio network?  

The vast majority of "latest news" reporting happens almost simultaneously as events are unfolding, the banners and headlines are quickly designed for maximum attention, panels of “expert" commentators express opinions in a vacuum of knowledge, before it's possible for anyone to have perspective. By the time the truth has emerged, most of the media and public have moved on to the next story. Some of the most obvious questions never get asked. Many misconceptions become accepted truth.

If we have the patience to wait for the news, we have a far better chance of seeing the bigger picture, understanding the problem and designing real change but it takes some real force of will to resist being glued to breaking news.

How much better it could be in the wake of a big news events to just wait 2 or 3 days to engage until the real information has been gathered, organised by wise and dispassionate heads and only then accompanied by intelligent commentary from the best conservative and progressive sources.  

Of course, I’m pretty certain what I’m talking about exists already, doesn’t it? I’m not positive though. There are many brilliant journalists who have the highest aspirations. Let me know what news source you trust out there that devotes appropriate time and scrupulous energy to gathering the full story before they present the news.

And while we’re at it, let's ban cars. I’m ready.

Neil

The First Post

Baltimore is breathing

As I have removed myself from social media for the foreseeable future, I aim to find a few new things to throw at you on here. Hopefully my words will flow free and I can string together thoughts of more than 280 characters, remember a few good things that happened today or yesterday, show you some panoramic images and short movies, fast corridors with surprise endings. There’s a world of creative process and remarkable people out there that I hope to discover.

I have an uneasy feeling about social media and the way it affords cover and encouragement for cowards and creeps and this has just led me to the decision not to participate anymore. I am hoping for space to reflect and create good things. 

Back on the laptop now I’m writing emails to you, it’s old school and I can see the keyboard properly with my failing eyesight. It might take a while to get my flow going but don’t give up on me.

Thanks for reading 

Neil

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