Outward Looking Face

Vanity is such an ugly thing, ironically. Like, what supposedly decent and self-respecting person spends up to an hour framing themselves in the right light at the right angle with the right facial expression, to take dozens of photos of themselves, each with minor differences, only to delete them all, try again with another batch and eventually modify their favourite one of the lot by tweaking the brightness and colour levels?

Well, I just did. I know I prefer ‘in situ’ shots – those photos that capture those moments of real life, frozen in time – as opposed to one that people pose for, but I never happen to be in those kind of situations any more. You know, the kind of situations where you’re out and about with others, where someone can take photos of things seemingly at random to capture those moments.

Instead, I’ve not seen a new photo of myself since February, and I know it’s not even been a full year but I like to think I’ve changed a bit since then. My hair slightly shorter and has the capacity to stand upwards a little bit before flopping straight down again. I have new glasses where the oblong frames are slightly bigger, but not so big that I look like some hipster reminiscing about vintage fashions of the 1950s. I haven’t shaved for almost a month and I’m starting to get a weird little trail of stubble covering the space between my bottom lip and my chin.

So I’ve updated my outward looking face onto the world. And it only took about 47 minutes to get something I could deal with. Something that shows enough of a smile to say “I’m not miserable”, yet not too much of a smile to say “I’m a smug, self-centred bastard”. Of course, the picture I’ve chosen is a complete lie, for I am often both of those things. But I don’t want the picture to show that. Then absolutely anyone could see it.

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When someone asks you to think of Swedish music, probably the last genre you’d think of would be old-timey country music from the American mid-west. But alas…

This is the kind of thing that I suppose a 70s Dolly Parton might’ve done if only she was actually two sisters from Scandinavia. It’s somehow cheery, yet somehow maudlin at the same time. Classic First Aid Kit I suppose. Now is album number 3 available yet?

First Aid Kit – It’s A Shame