• Why Buddhism? #1

    I grew up in a family without any strong ties to religion, which I now see as something of a privilege – although at the time I used to envy those of my friends on their Sunday school adventures. Neither were my family overtly humanist agnostic or atheist. I just can’t remember any sort of conversations about faith or religion at all in our household.

  • Naga Mas play London South Bank's "Gamelanathon" 2007

    School of Gamelan

    This weekend, I’ve been attending a two-day workshop in Indonesian Gamelan in Glasgow, lead by the great John Pawson of the South Bank Gamelan Players. The weekend got me thinking about the history of my connection with Gamelan music, and inspired me to write this blog entry.

  • Introduction

    Why a blog about Business, Buddhism and Creativity?  Well, they are three things that I’m currently not so good at, but will need to be as…

  • Hollywood & Highland, L.A.

    Hotel California

    HI-Arts has jokingly been referred to as “Hotel California” due to the length of time staff members tend to stay with the organisation. It must be doing something right. So it’s appropriate that I should end my sabbatical at a hotel in California.

  • On the road again

    On Thursday morning, I was up early for a 200 mile round trip to the town of Sells to visit the new Tohono O’odham Native Cultural Center and Museum. This might seem a long way, but the roads here make life easier – the only trick is to stay awake on those long, straight desert roads in a car with automatical gears.

  • Andromeda Heights

    Wednesday morning was my big event – I had offered to lead a session on marketing and audience development for resident artists and community businesses here in the Ajo area. Flyers had been sent out, notices posted and adverts placed, and we had a very respectable turnout of close to twenty people at the training.

  • Marcus at the Curley School, Ajo AZ

    A home from home in Ajo

    I have found my new hot desk at the International Sonoran Desert Alliance offices in south-west Arizona. This week I’ll be in residence here in Ajo (pronounced ‘Ah-ho’), the largest town to be found in the US half of the Sonoran desert.

  • Bisbee AZ

    Bisbee bee

    Last night, I headed out to see the Arizona Theatre Company’s latest production at the Temple of Music and Art theatre in downtown Tucson. I’m hoping to meet the theatre company’s managing director, Kevin Moore, later in the month, so thought I better do my homework!

  • Tucson, Arizona

    Yesterday I picked up a surprisingly large hire car and moved on to the second stop on my Arizona sabbatical, Tucson.