Elemental / A new podcast for creative people Ellie Westbrook

Hello there and welcome to the 2nd episode of the Elemental podcast. I am @welliestbrook, your host. Find me on Discord and talk to me please. Here I have a little Christmas cracker for you. A little ear adventure. So please do have fun and get lost in the fantasy. Happy Christmas all.

You awaken from a very, very, very deep sleep. Wow, God! Your body feels so heavy! You try and shake your right arm, you shake your right hand... you shake your right hand and catch a glimpse of your right hand. Wow. You look at that. You hold up your left hand. You look at them, you twist them around. They are really fat. What? They're really fat, they're really sausage-y. You're sure your hands weren't like this before and your nails are very thick. They're really thick. They're tough! They look like my Grandma's nails used to look, they're like yellow crusts. Solid and... how long have you been asleep for? Your body feels really... your bones are... you try and shake your shoulders and bit and they feel really quite crunchy.

I mean, look at your belly. Ok so you don't remember where you were last but, you're sure you don't remember having that belly. Wow that is a round belly. That is big. A round belly. You tap it once, you tap it again. You tap it and its like a taught drum and it seems to sound out to the far reaches of the universe.

Your chin has a massive beard. You run your chubby sausage fingers through that big beard. Its long, its very long, it's going all the way down to your chest. This beard is white and very thick. You're able to stick all ten of your sausage-y fingers right into that and they're almost lost. A little bird flies out of your beard. A tiny bird. How big are you? How big are you?  

There's a knock at the door. There's a little tinkle and a head pops round, around the door. Its a green hat with a bell. 

"Hello, Your Friendliness. Have you had a good sleep?"

The little hat mutters.

"How long have a been asleep?"

You ask. Wow, shit your voice is really boomy.

"Um"

the green hat checks her wrist, 

"363 days and 23 minutes My Great Friendliness! We have a big day ahead! Get up! Your suit is washed and hanging on the back of the door."

The door creaks closed, and you sit up.

You are at the helm. You are the boss. The biggest boss, you are the biggest b-b-b-boss. You have the biggest day ahead of you and it is going to be the best. You crack the reins. The Reindeer flutter and chatter with a year's worth of pent up energy and then, then, then they start to trot. Then, then, then they break into a canter and then to a full gallop, gallop. They ride, they ride, they run and snort and the spit and the laugh and they.... All around there is the vast white emptiness of snow and ice as far, as far, as far as the eye can see. The twelve Reindeer infront of you, bouncing and smashing their hooves, splashing out at you, spraying chunks of snow and ice into your big, fat, beautiful beard. The animals begin to angle upward, up, up, up into the sky. Up, up, up they begin to fly. 

Deep inside your enormous gut, a convulsion begins to overtake you. Uncontrollably, unstoppably, you begin,

"O Ho, o Ho..."

You begin,

"O Ho Ho"

You begin,

"o Ho o Ho Ho Hooooo!!!"

Your voice ricochets across the craggy mountains, skims across the open seas, bouncing on the waves, smashing on the cliff faces of land, riding the wind, weaving through the trees, hitting the ears of confused wanderers and dreamers. For you, are bringing, the christmas magic.

We know the rest of the story, the good things you do + we also know, that by the time you get home, back to your big bed made of white fluffy fur, with red trim, that you're so exhausted, that you fall asleep for 363 days, and when you awake, you're confused, again.

 It's a big responsibility being Santa.

Welcome to the Third Place Sonic Experience Podcast...

My name is Ellie and I am going to be your podcast builder and designer and journey-taker for the next chunk of time. This is your first installment and this is just me saying "hello" and "welcome" and that this podcast is created for you. Of course, I don't know you yet, so this first episode is just a little creative taster, to give you a little break from your work. You can find me on the Discord @Welliestbrook so please do get in touch and we can build this thing together because I want to fill it with your YOU-ness and everything that you wanna do and are interested in. Anything that you share with me I can integrate anonymously or with your name attached to it or whatever. But we'll evolve it as we go. 

So this is just a little audio meditation to start.

It's lovely to meet your ears!

  

Hi, and welcome to your audio journey with me. I'm going to take you on a guided audio meditation, exploring your creativity. So please take a pen, take some paper and go and find a place to sit, a little chair, maybe on the floor. Just make sure that you can lean on the paper to write on it. Maybe you need a little book with you. Keep me in your headphones for all the time we're together. So I'll just let you get there.



Now, you're comfortable with your pen, your pencil, paper and somewhere to rest, I just want you to sit there, or lie there, pen and paper down, and breathe in and breathe out and relax. Breathe in, breathe out and relax.



And slowly, comfortably, take your pen, your pencil and your paper. Now just write the first word that comes to your head and now take it on a journey.



And write the next word that comes to your head and the next word and take it to a journey. And the next one. And the final word. Now look at your words and I will support you as you connect your words. Maybe it's a little poem. Maybe it's a little saying. Maybe it's a little story.  Could be stupid, could be profound, wherever you're at.



Once your words are connected, put a little full stop at the end if that suits your style of writing, and then take your creative meditation back with you to your computer as you carry on your work. Maybe you want to write it up, maybe you want to record a voice note of it. Maybe you just want to have it sitting beside you, but enjoy your little creative exploration.



If you liked what you did, or if you don't (!), send it to me and I can use it for the next journey. It can remain anonymous or you can put your name to it. Have a lovely day.



Hi there it's me again on a slightly more casual mic, and I just wanted to close off the episode and say thank you for listening. I look forward to hearing from at least one of you with a little response and then we can crack on with the next episode.

If you have any thoughts about things you'd be interested to do or hear, please ping them across to me on the Discord, as mentioned. 

The other thing I want to do is to create a theme tune for our podcast. If anyone has, out there, a beat. Like a drumbeat... maybe they're just hitting the wall with a spoon or banging some sort of rhythm out that could potentially be the origins of our theme tune... please send it over. Just a beat, nothing else. No tune, no harmony. And then we can see what it might begin to inspire.



Have a lovely fortnight, and you'll be hearing from me again, soon,

x x x