An Icy Walk in Berlin

Walking the streets of Berlin has been of late, a rather intrepid escapade. In a slightly squatted strut, you find yourself comforted. Yes, you may be less likely to slip over on the ice, but you do indeed resemble a penguin. I made a rather unfortunate decision the other day. It was one that certainly put my penguin walk to the test. 

I took a path towards the middle of the road. Now, what had previously been a cross road, was a cul-de-sac. A long stretch of roadworks had made it so. Obviously, that meant very minimal traffic and grit to break the ice down. So when I placed my black leather air force one down, I knew it was the wrong choice. I proceeded to make my way across what can only be described as an ice rink. Each paranoid step reminded me to purchase more suitable footwear, an expense too great at present. However, in the end I made it across unscathed, and got to the studio…

Allow me to make sense of this anecdote. The contemporary world has brought about an inundation of fraught to the creative industries. Much recent commentary has remarked about how AI will do this and Social Media does that. People have lost faith in the current systems by which the creative industries operate. In light of everything that is happening, we must stay present. While I was walking across the icy road, I had that anxious feeling. One that perhaps was aligned with negativity, doubt and stress. For many artists at the moment, we feel like this about ourselves and careers. What will happen, I don’t believe we can imagine. It takes only the imagination, however, to incite these feelings into our passions. Therefore, ourselves and work is affected. 

This is a blog post to offer a shake of the hand. We at Ducale believe in the future of artists. Aiming to become a platform for people to express themselves musically, we don’t believe in the one-size-fits-all approach, as seen on TikTok and social media these days. At the end of the day, I made it across the icy stretch of tarmac, and I hope that this can act as a micro-cosm for the future. We must keep faith within ourselves.

Peace,

John