Status: This is an I'll-update-as-and-when-I do sort of affair

Things and Stuff

Walk through the snow to a bar where there's no one I know, drink slow with nowhere to go.

My name is Bethan Jones but my friends call me Beth. I’m 20 years old and I live in a share house with my Boyfriend and two of my best friends. My family, hometown of 19 years and job are just short of 200 miles from here.

Here is Newport, Wales. It is barely a city. It is picturesque in a “Its a shit city, but its our shit city” way. Despite the fact that its crammed full of drugs, homeless people and the cast of Jeremy Kyle, Its a nice place. Newport has got a bad name for itself because of the people that live here. To get a real idea of the place we’re talking about, theres a parody or two of Empire State of Mind on youtube that sums the place up.

The reason I’ve lived here for over a year now is because I am enrolled as a student at the city’s university. I’m in my second year, here and I’ve learnt a lot about myself and life. My chosen subject to study is Creative Sound and Music; The weirdest music course on the face of this earth, I’m sure of it. I’ve just started my second semester of year two and I’ve only picked up and instrument in class twice… and it wasn’t mine, nor was it an instrument I’d say I can play. Yet the course is incredibly success. There isn’t many of us that haven’t had BBC radio play. Some readers of Mibba may possibly be aware of an up-and-coming double act called Lilygreen and Maguire who are product of this course. Brilliant. Budding career for me then.

The music industry is a lost cause. Trust me, I’ve studied it through my 3 years of college and throughout my time here in Newport. Music doesn’t have the same value it did which is killing the industry. It is up to the up and comers like me to come up with new solutions to make music a career that will put food on the table. This is if we can get our feet on a decent rung of the musical ladder.

I think I’m doing the tortured musician thing moderately. I should be happy, I live with my friends, I don’t quite need a job in term time, I’ve started an awesome punk rock band. My life is my own yet I feel under the thumb of my parents and of society. Despite being surrounded by my friends all day and my Boyfriend always by my side, I still feel lonely.

I love feeling like a lonely soul in a dirty, downtrodden city. It makes me feel like I have something to be creative about.