We make it together.

The thing about life - or being a grown up - is that the minutiae of existence, the micro-narrative - can drown out the voices of the past and future - the memories of what we love, and the dreams of what we want to do.
I think perhaps the job - one of the jobs, at least - of Art (sorry about the grandiose capitalisation, but you know, I mean the Arts - culture, the world of ideas etc) is to make those voices loud again, to allow us to hear once more who it is we are and what we dream of doing. At least, and here I am making the political personal again, that has been my experience of the Arts in the last week. The outstanding Auckland Writers' and Readers' Festival made resonant again the voice within in me that says reading is your greatest pleasure; talking and thinking about books your favourite pasttime; writing your pursuit.

Last night we went to what some might think the antithesis of a book festival; a gig by an ex-punk rocker at the King's Arms. But the same sense of the loud shout - perhaps the barbaric yawp? - reminding me - and Lane - of what we love to do was clear. Frank Turner, ex-punk rock muso, now a folk-punk troubadour for the modern age - had me jumping and singing and my ears ringing. I'm a sucker for a singer-songwriter who can actually, well, write. And with songs that reference Prufrock, Wat Tyler's Peasant Rebellion, the journey of the Magi, Hemingway and Dylan - sung with a kind of frenetic need to remind the listener of the other Dylan- do not go gentle into that good night - Turner is all that.

Here's my recording of 'Time Machine'  - a new song - from last night:

And here's 'Photosynthesis', the song chosen as last night's encore. The one that really resonated with us, with the lyric "And I won't sit down/and I won't shut up/ and most of all I will never grow up."

Turner ended the gig thanking, as one does, the band - and the sound man, and the staff. Then he thanked the audience: we make this music together, he said.

And that's it - that's the thing about Art, or whatever we want to call it. We make it together. I read a book and the author and I embark on a journey that only we can take. A production of a play is only as good at its audience. A gig needs a crowd. The painting needs a viewer.

We make it together.