Stevie Wonder’s Love Letter to Life and much moreΝβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ 
James Pillion
 

MY FAVOURITE THINGS | Higher Ground

β€œI am what I am. I love me! And I don't mean that egotistically - I love that God has allowed me to take whatever it was that I had and to make something out of it.”

β€” STEVIE WONDER
 

A compelling conversation with a romantic other around the power of perspective had me chewing on a new remedy. One that helps us rise above personal pain and suffering by asking ourselves a simple question. How many poor souls out there are battling the very same demons at this very moment? The practice of meditation continues to collapse so many false walls of my mind, reminding that my problems are not, and have never been, separate from the rest. It’s not easy to swallow this lump of truth in the age of social media but when we can hold it alongside our own, the act of suffering never quite feels the same.

November already? For all my fellow disbelievers here’s a new monthly playlist to tune out the noise 🎢

 

The Wonder of Stevie πŸ“»

Everything you need to know about this new podcast is jam-packed into Wesley Morris’ debut episode on Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind. Because in exploring the making-of process of this 1972 release, Morris proves that Wonder, not TONTO, is the true synthesizer. This six-part series on the maestro’s evolution is a study of manifest destiny. Behind the never-ending love in, Morris unearths the larger message behind cherished classics like Superstition (a personal favourite) and Wonder’s desire to substitute love in place of our collective fears. Smokey Robinson’s sneaky little Airbnb slots are a masterclass in subterfuge.

β€œWhen you believe in things, that you don't understand, then you suffer, Superstition ain't the way” β€” Stevie Wonder
 

The Psychology of Conformity πŸ–₯

This After Skool video gave voice to my anxieties around the launch of Conversations in Creativity, a workshop that celebrates the boundless power of creative thinking. At heart, my prolonged procrastination came down to a matter of worth, because for far too long I muted my voice on the basis of self-doubt. But just as we can set our vivid imaginations to crippling our calling so too can we channel main-character energy. Fake it til you make it. It helps to remember that the most captivating souls we’ll ever meet weren’t born interesting. They cultivated their fascinations by moving to their own music. A curated playlist designed for their ears only.

β€œWe shy away from greatness so we can be like everyone else.” β€” Abraham Maslow
 

City Hall πŸŽ₯

The first (and last) reason to sit (back) down with this classic slice of Hollywood cheese is for Al Pacino. For while his native Bronx braggadocio is bewitching, you can’t help wondering if Pacino’s Mayor Pappas isn’t related to Tony Montana after all. All the same, Harold Becker’s political drama stands the test of time for lensing the real-life tales of Ken Lipper, Pacino’s childhood friend and former staffer to Ed Koch. Al Pacino’s Early Scenes, vivid excerpts from his upcoming memoir, turned me onto the backstory of this 1996 release. It’s so nice to watch something that makes me think enough to leave my phone on charge.
 

Waking Up πŸ“š

This book is all about rewiring our circuitry, disengaging from the never-ending cycle of thoughts to better appreciate the beauty of consciousness. Like Sam Harris, my journey inward was set off by psychedelic adventures, ceremonial trips that shed light on the absurdity of the self. Yet it was only through the practice of meditation that these cosmic visions were made manifest. The true magic of this cerebral book is its no-nonsense guide to Waking Up. For while we can’t mute the endless thoughts swirling at any given moment, we can transform our relationship to them. Because in learning to observe the interminable noise much like clouds passing overhead we can break out of the madhouse to tap in to the true flow of life.

 
 

La Belle et la BΓͺte πŸŽ₯

I never had the pleasure of enjoying Jean Cocteau’s cinematic fantasy as a child and yet I can’t help but wonder as to the vivid nightmares fuelled by the sight of Jean Marais as the dashing fur-faced Beast. Or the daydreams that Josette Day would have inspired from her smoldering beauty alone. While I’m ignorant to the author’s larger intentions, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s fairy tale (abridged into a 18th Century bestseller by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont) echoes an idea that consumes me. The true grace of animals. In fact the only true beasts I’ve encountered are the ones that consume the hearts of unfulfilled men.
 

Words of Love πŸ“Ή

Nick Broomfield’s Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love was the perfect detour on the road to reading Various Positions, Ira B. Nadel’s fascinating biography on Leonard Cohen. Susan Cain’s Bittersweet resurrected my curiosity to know just what made the sensitive soul tick. A little bit of everything it turns out. Like the best artists, he served himself up on a silver platter, a walking-talking barometer of public life.  While the resulting narrative is par for the course, it delivers an unexpected twist in Broomfield’s adolescent infatuation with Marianne Ilhen. These vicarious asides capture a woman in mourning, secretly yearning for a love that touched the sides all the way down.
 

Lee Miller πŸ‘€

A Sunday afternoon with Ellen Kuras’ Lee helped me fall back in love with the silver screen. Because Lee Miller’s story is one of intention. Trading in her beauty for a Rolleiflex, Miller willfully wrested a new life from the grips of her male counterparts by offering no alternative. This trait, endemic to the most β€˜successful’ men and women of history, was Miller’s superpower. To judge by her inability to find peace and spiritual absolution after the horrors of Dachau, it was also her eventual undoing. But it’s her devil-may-care attitude that lingers, forever immortalized by her portrait in Adolf Hitler’s personal tub. What a vision.

β€œIn that moment I suddenly realized that I had gotten her wrong. I had thought of her as a useless drunk and hysterical figure. She was in fact a very accomplished and courageous woman.” β€” Antony Penrose
 

Blasphemy 🎢

Listening back to Apollo Brown and Ras Kass’s potent release on its tenth anniversary had me nostalgic in all the right ways. I still remember when my brand new friend Lonnie Edwards cued up How To Kill God on his iPod while cruising Lincoln Park on a summer Chicago morning in 2014. Beyond the provocation of this title lies a seductive package, resounding warmth nestled under the infectious rhythms of Brown and Kass. Ten years on, it’s the choice samples that have me smiling wider than ever. It’s always nice to reunite with old friends aging with grace.
 

Thanks for reading. To show your support, forward it to someone who’d like it or treat yourself to one of my books.

If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can read previous issues and subscribe here.
 

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