Late Romantic began as a blog called 'theexjournalist' sometime around my late teens / early twenties. As I've moved tentatively towards placing greater values on privacy, professionality, and other projects, its appearance and content has changed, as has its hosting (1). It does appear to me that, however, over the years, the consistent function of... Continue Reading →
Classical music: how to get into something difficult
Thank god for teens on Spotify. Their knowledge on so many topics is as lacking as mine, whether we’re talking about classic 80s hip-hop they weren't there for or Romantic classical music when they're not sure if romantic is an era or a mood. The beautiful thing about the teens, though, is that even if... Continue Reading →
Whose Career Do I Want?
What is a role model? The message I hope to take away from assessing ‘establishment’ careers and how people got there is a direction; I hope that by admiring aspects of others’ journies I can replicate the pieces admire on my own journey, and push myself to a place I am happy to be in through conscious effort and wilful striving. I hope you, too, can figure out what shape you want your future career to take from the example of those you admire.
All Quiet on the LRF, pt II: Life, Covid, and Approaching 30
I want to leave my 20s the person I wanted to be at the beginning of it.
Schrödinger’s Text Message
Relationships have been changing for years now. In an age of social media, people you were once close to update you in the same way they update their close friends and family. You know intimate details about their life, even when you haven't spoken in years, and it's no wonder that we don't know who our friends are or how we want our relationships to look.
Cycling in Europe / Learning to Cycle
A year ago, I could cycle, but I hadn't done so in two decades, and I'd certainly never done it in traffic - yesterday I cycled five miles through some of the busiest roads and junctions in the capital. How did I get here?
Understanding Indulgence: How To Care For Yourself
My conception of self-care is of two poles, servicing more of our emotions than frivolity or luxury by itself. The two forms of self-care are indulgence and moderation. These two are polar opposites, but in order to truly care for ourselves, we need to understand the role of indulgence and its effects on us, not blindly indulge.
Why I Hate Flash Fiction
Flash fiction is a writer’s genre. Often shorter than a tweet, the whole genre is built on competitions and exercises for creative writers rather than keeping a reader in mind – when we consider where flash fiction comes from and what it gives us, is it time we stop engaging with this ridiculous form?
The Multiverse, string theory, and how we make choices.
Alternate universes are not governed in the typical way we laypeople describe them - 'somewhere in an alternate universe', and don’t really function the way they do in art, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t take a closer look and use complicated mathematics to influence the way we live our lives.
Side Hustle or Passion Project?
I think most of us have a creative project in our bottom drawer or a business idea that we’re working on alongside our conventional job if you’re an idiot like me, you may even have both, things you couldn’t choose between and keep you very busy, but which can be tabled at a time when your ‘real’ work has to be your main focus.
Late Romantic 