influential life

it's down to the last few days and the stress is high but there is a definite 'light at the end of the tunnel' feel to this week. that said, given how quickly the last few years have gone by and how surreal this all feels, it's hard to imagine that it'll ever end. even thinking about a summer with no thoughts of going back to uni at the end of it, i can't get my head around it.

while writing up a 'to do' list the other day i started thinking about influences. how do you define an influence? the films you've seen, the music you've listened to, the things you've done, the art work you've seen, the books i've read, the people you've spoken to, the places you've lived, the wine you drink.

this year has been filled with such a disparate array of these that it's hard to pick out the few that have had an obvious affect on the work i've created. there are a few obvious ones, like the changing of spaces i use to reflect, meditate, study, ponder. or the trip to venice last year that opened up a whole new scope of amazing people, artwork, food, coffee and wine. but what about the random people i've met at bus stops, or on planes. or the random music that's on my ipod at the moment. do they really play that big a part? enough to be recognised and recorded?

i decided to write out a list of all the films i've seen lately (that i can remember) and realised that, apart from the few shockingly panny entries on the list, most of them have inspired me in some way. my conclusion: it all counts, but it doesn't all count. suitably vague indicator of the fact that i'm none the wiser than when the thought initially entered my head.