Sparks & Routine

 Hello everyone, once again I am back with a new post here. Before we dive into todays topic I’d like to announce that my essay for university this year got a first so a huge shoutout to my lecturer (if he ever reads this) as I’m putting all my brain power and knowledge into this and it’s finally paying off. I’d also like to say that because it’s pride month I will be soon making a post on my trans identity and sparks due to how helpful this band have been for me as currently I only have 2 best friends who I see any time I can (I have other friends but those two are like my cheese if I was a mouse) so shoutout to Jenna and Ethan who may or may not read this I hope you enjoy my brain dump. 

So on with today’s thoughts and discussions. I thought about discussing routine and sparks. For some of you coming from the sparks Facebook group you may remember I asked if this band had a vital part to your day to day life. Thanks to those who answered as I will like to share these findings with my own as we “beat the clock” 

Where do we begin? We start with comments I received when I asked this question. Leslie Miller in response told me “Sparks are played nearly everywhere during the day for me” and added “been known to have them going when doing art work and housework” which to me is very relatable as I use them a lot for my own work as a creative. It recently occurred to me that my autism is probably causing something called synthesia which is where I can associate colours and emotions to songs, an old friend of mine said sparks to them was a “purple band” and I was confused as I didn’t realise how others felt what I felt anytime I heard something, but we will get to this idea in another episode. 

Another comment I got from Helen McGill-Kerr read out “I now have routine of playing sparks in the car everyday with albums in rotation” which I found incredibly wholesome as I find car journeys either unbearable due to alienation from my family or somewhat bearable as I know I’m getting a treat. Unfortunately I can’t drive as of yet and I’m banned from controlling music due to how different my tastes are to everyone else’s. But when travelling on a train or bus I love my sparks as it calms me down and brings comfort. In an unstable world with unpredictable public transport it’s nice to listen to someone tell me how bad modern pop music is as it’s just sex and noise. 

Another comment I received was from Sonja Lendi, who I’ve been friends and following since around last year when I began finding other sparks artists so I highly recommend you check their work out. They said “I do my exercises in the morning with sparks on shuffle and also my chores are a lot more pleasant with sparks on in the background” which I smile in agreement with. I do my families cleaning and laundry and often have my dog (the no.1 dog fan of sparks) Esme with me and we play a game called “radio roulette” Which is where on breaks we play random tracks I’m currently obsessed with, most are sparks, but I love seeing her either snooze or stare up curious at the sounds. 

Now we come to what sparks do for my routine, I’ve mentioned snippets in the previous paragraphs but I decided a full paragraph will do us more justice. So for people new here, I am awaiting my autism diagnosis as the health system is A MESS, on top of this I’m awaiting trauma therapy and that’s also A MESS. But one thing that stays constant is sparks. 

Sparks in my routine looks like either; wake up and put sparks on Alexa and make and eat breakfast which is always toast and milk or coffee, I then get dressed with sparks images distracting me as I hope to one day dress in an outfit inspired by them, get the bus to university with sparks on and over breaks at university I have sparks on as unfortunately I don’t have any friends at university other than the animation students, I then soon go home or to ceramics which I usually play sparks to get to. If it’s a break/holidays I’m often watching sparks concerts; they make me wish I could time travel plus it’s fun to regulate myself by dancing around and sparks. 

That’s it for today’s post. I hope to catch everyone soon as I am so relieved it’s summer and I’m finally finding a schedule. I’ll catch you soon with a personal post to celebrate pride month.

Thanks again,

Jack :)