Normality is underrated
I had already prepared my fortnightly article, but a visit to our local town totally changed my direction and at 66 discovered I have a classic case of obsessive–compulsive personality disorder.
My planned fortnightly article was a technical piece about the building of my new pedalboard for the recent Starlite & Campbell UK tour and future music projects when a visit to our local town of Samora Correia changed my mind as something disturbing happened.
Entropy
As full-time artists, Suzy Starlite and I have a pretty bizarre lifestyle. Working when others are sleeping, sleeping when others are working and unless on tour - and even that is by no means certain - it’s unusual to have a ‘normal’ day where you end up doing exactly what you expected to do.
Our work is the definition of entropy and I find the extensive travelling, touring and large crowds enormously stressful, especially airports; you could call this hilarious - in a black humour kind of way - considering my profession.
Ever since I can remember, my brain has demanded both order and perfection.
The other day I decided to do a little research and through the wonders of the internet discovered a condition called Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). When I looked at the criteria for diagnosis I ticked 98% of the boxes, with a side order of Autism and a bowl of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) sauce.
I can’t believe at 66 that I had never looked into this before - it’s so clear.
Preoccupation with details (I have been found out)
Perfectionism interfering with task completion (Ahhhhh)
Rigidity and stubbornness (certainly)
Reluctance to delegate (most of the time)
Excessive conscientiousness and pedantry - excessive concern with minor details and rules (certainly)
Workaholic behaviour (indubitably)
Miserliness - excessive desire to save money (absolutely)
Inability to discard worn-out or worthless objects (oh shit, look in my underpants drawer)
Wikipedia tells us that it is the most common personality disorder in the United States and is present in 3-8% of us. At least I am not alone.
Normality is underrated
Routine is good for me and often envy those who have a regular day job where life is predictable and ordered.
During our recent tour, we met a surgeon who was bored living a very predictable, mundane lifestyle and when chatting in the bar said he was envious of us living our passion. The grass is always greener eh?
For the past nine months, we have been going to the gym three times a week, on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On the intervening days, I take our two Labradors for a long walk to keep up the exercise. Sometimes Starlite comes with us. The open space, calm and fresh air does my head a lot of good.
Studio work suits me as work can be undertaken in a predetermined order and the recording process is mostly systematic and scientific.
As is the nature of the creative process, what and how you record is generally chaotic, but at least there is some regularity and pattern that settles me.
Starlite and I are continuously writing, developing ideas and releasing them regularly.
We publish one article a week covering a variety of themes and also produce and co-present The Supertone Show - a weekly hour-long music and chat show, which is syndicated to various radio stations worldwide and also available here on VIBES.
So what’s the point?
To say the least, I don’t cope with change very well.
Over the past twelve months, our local supermarket Continente moved location and in response, Pingo Doce closed, refurbished and reopened - it’s taken me a while to adjust to the new regime. Also, two of our favourite local restaurants for ‘Prato do dia’ have closed.
I mourn these old places, routes and routines.
Joe’s place
This week is carnival in Samora Correia as well as the rest of Portugal.
For the pious, it’s the last time to eat and drink without a nasty bout of Catholic-induced guilt before the 40-day fast to Easter.
2023 was the first time we attended as in the previous couple of years, it had been cancelled due to COVID restrictions. It’s a very merry affair with dancers, carnival floats, food stalls and lots of people.
On Saturday night everyone dons fancy dress, eats out then goes down to the party in Associação Recreativa e Cultural Amigos de Samora (ARCAS) until the early hours. The big day is Tuesday when all the serious carnival action happens.
Our friend Dani asked if we would like to go to dinner, have a few drinks then go on to ARCAS. Tables were booked at Taverna Ribatejana - one of our regular haunts in Samora Correia - where the food is excellent as is the service and the price! We were all set.
On Wednesday we bumped into the maître d' of said restaurant and he mentioned that Bar do Concelho - our favourite bar in Portugal - was still closed due to a delay in refurbishment work which led to its closure for the whole of January.
This bar is the hub of the town, adjacent to the Taverna and owned by the colourful and charismatic Joe Martini, who ever since we moved to the locale during the COVID lockdown, has been a source of friendship, connection, information and assistance.
Joe allowed us to use the bar as one of our locations for a photo shoot with ace photographer Paul Husband, who flew over from Manchester, UK to work with us.
It’s been our ‘go-to’ place where we have met new friends and had some seriously great times.
In 2021, I wrote an article about him, the bar, and his ability to fix things for us.
So last night we dined in the restaurant and as predicted, we found the square empty of life and Joe’s bar sat in darkness.
It was unnervingly silent. There were no throngs of partygoers standing outside wearing fancy dress and having a great time, no rock n’ roll music roaring out of the bar, no staff making exotic drinks pulling Tom Cruise shapes from the movie Cocktail.
The people on the outside terrace where we had played gigs, met good friends, drank wine, beer and Gin & Tonic had been replaced by silence, a cement mixer and a pile of sand.
It did upset us both as one of the foundations of our life in this tiny part of the world is right here.
We can’t wait for the official opening in a couple of weeks and celebrate with our friends in the heart of our community.
Normality is underrated.
Great article. Structure and reliability and routine are like comfort food. They help you feel grounded in the unpredictability of the world. I, on the other hand am pure change. Too much predictability and routine and sameness drives me crazy. I think I’m ADD. 🤣 you are awesome 🤩 love your work.
Excellent read, for two reasons.
1) it's always good to get an honest, interesting and sometimes personal piece from someone who is open (and articulate) enough to do so and 2) I found myself nodding in agreement with a lot of it, but then I suspect a lot of folks, once past 60 (probably even a lot earlier in life) would.
I don't believe any of us are 'normal,' certainly in the sense of what a normal human being (in terms of mental, physical, emotional facets and intelligence quotient etc) is even supposed to be.
Equally, the more intelligent, out-the-box creatives and those we cite as having true genius (no matter the century) are all more than likely on that colourful spectrum somewhere.
"extensive travelling... Large crowds... enormously stressful..."
My wife (who also doesn't like change, and I'm not far behind) and I are much the same, but it was a later development, having loved travelling when a good couple of decades younger -- and I only now attend/ cover/ enjoy the club touring circuit or smaller venues, where there is usually Zero danger of seeing a "large crowd" (more kinda black humour, but sadly accurate).
I also think most of us who put time & effort into what we do, or ensure we do it well, carry the ODPD gene to lesser or larger degrees).
Oh, and I did try normal once; hated it. Never went back.