Joke du Jour

An Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotsman, a Rabbi and a Priest walk into a pub.

The barman says to them: Is this some kind of joke?

Stones insights

Heard on the radio in the last couple of days...

Bill Wyman on archaeology, described metal-detecting as:
Fishing on dry land

Ronnie Wood described screen-printing as:
Overdubbing with colours

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Saracens vs Newcastle Falcons with the enfants terribles - seeing Johnny Wilkinson in the flesh, especially kicking

Joking with D (in Nahling)

Watching BAFTA screeners

Review of 2007

Best Film:
The Lives of Others
Knocked Up
3:10 to Yuma

Michael Clayton
Into the Wild
There Will Be Blood
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Golden Compass
Charlie Wilson's War
In the Valley of Elah
Die Hard 4.0
American Gangster


Best TV:
Skins

Best Book:
The Song Before it is Sung - Justin Cartwright
Life Class - Pat Barker
The Ghost - Robert Harris

Best Play:
The 39 Steps (Criterion)

Best Albums:
We'll Never Turn Back - Mavis Staples
Twelve - Patti Smith

Best Single/track:
Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen & the E St Band
Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
Patti Smith - Smells Like Teen Spirit

Best Gig:
1) Madcap's Last Laugh - Syd Barrett tribute at the Barbican
2) Patti Smith - Twelve Songs tour at the Roundhouse
3) The Rolling Stones - last night of their Bigger Bang tour at the O2
4) John Martyn - Solid Air at the Albert Hall

Best Exhibition:
1) Antony Gormley at the Hayward
2) Robert Capa and Gerda Taro at the IPC, New York

Best Sports Event:
1) England beating France in Rugby World Cup Semi-final in Paris
2) Start of Tour de France in London

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

A run in the cemetery

D's reaction to his new chemistry set for his birthday

Watching D watching The Golden Compass (at the Empire Leicester Square), entirely absorbed

Quote of the month

D getting his birthday present from his grandma today, a chemistry set:

"I'll make myself bigger and smaller. And then I'll make my toys alive."

"I'm going to take over the world, Dad. I'm going to make something on fire! Ha ha ha!"

What does that say about young people's perception of science?!

Track of Christmas Day

Last Month of the Year by Blind Boys of Alabama from Go Tell It on the Mountain (good to see them dress up for the occasion)

Heralds the unwrapping of gifts in our house

(Then the Frank Sinatra Christmas Album swings in)

Tell me when was Jesus born
Last month of the year
Tell me when was Jesus born
Last month of the year
Tell me when was Jesus born
Last month of the year
Yeah, wasn't January, February, March, April or May
June, July, August, September, October, November
Was the 25th day of December
Was the last month of the year

The 100 Greatest Songs of all time

A christmas project/parlour game - for now, a work in progress (and not yet in order) - any suggestions more than welcome...



1 Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield
2 Inner City Blues - Marvin Gaye
3 Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen (MTV Plugged session 1992)
4 Ballad of a Thin Man - Bob Dylan
5 Atmosphere - Joy Division
6 Icon - Siouxsie and the Banshees
7 ESP- The Buzzcocks
8 Moondance - Van Morrison
9 West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
10 Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
11 Hyperballad - Bjork
12 Cold Water - Damien Rice
13 Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks
14 A Town Like Malice - The Jam
15 No Scrubs - TLC
16 Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
17 Fruit Tree - Nick Drake
18 Across the Universe - The Beatles
19 Oh Yoko - John Lennon
20 Danny Boy - Brian Kennedy
21 Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
22 That's Alright Mama - Elvis
23 Don't Want to Know - John Martyn
24 White Man in Hammersmith Palais - The Clash
25 Anarchy in the UK - The Sex Pistols
26 In a Rut - The Ruts
27 This is the house that Jack built - Aretha Franklin
28 Ventura Highway - America
29 For What it's Worth - Buffalo Springfield
30 Eloise - The Damned
31 Sometimes - Michael Frant & Spearhead
32 Fanciness - Shabba Ranks & Lady G
33 Natty Dread - Bob Marley & the Wailers
34 That Girl - Stevie Wonder
35 My Generation - The Who
36 Freedom Suite - The Young Disciples
37 Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed - David Bowie
38 In My Time of Dying - Led Zeppelin
39 Frank Sinatra - One for my baby
40 One - U2
41 Jealousy - Geraldine MacGowan [County Clare's finest]
42 The End - The Doors
43 Raglan Road - Sinead O'Connor
44 Soul Sacrifice - Santana (from Woodstock)
45 The Wind Cries Mary - Jimi Hendrix
46 The Last Month of the Year - Blind Boys of Alabama
47 Alison - Elvis Costello
48 Down on Mississippi - Mavis Staples
49 Ninety Nine and a Half - Dorothy Love Coates
50 Winter in America - Gil Scott Heron
51 Chase the Devil - Max Romeo & the Upsetters
52 Police & Thieves - Jumior Murvin
53 You're the Best Thing - The Style Council
54 Public Image Limited - PIL
55 The House of the Rising Sun - The Animals
56 Tainted Love - Gloria Jones
57 The Stars We Are - Marc Almond
58 The Snake with Eyes of Garnet - Shane MacGowan & the Popes
59 Runaway Boy - The Stray Cats
60 If I Was a Bell - Jean Simmons (in Guys & Dolls movie)
61 What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
62 Soolimon - Neil Diamond (from Hot August Night)
63 Monkeys theme - The Monkeys
64 Fire & Rain - James Taylor
65 The Boys are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
66 My Little Empire - Manic Street Preachers
67 Wandrin' Star - Lee Marvin
68 Everything I Own - Ken Boothe
69 Armagideon Time - Willie Williams
70 Fairytale of New York - Shane MacGowan & Kirsty MacColl
71 Harrow Road - Big Audio Dynamite
72 Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
73 Like a Prayer - Madonna
74 Jerusalem - hymn
75 Jerusalem the Golden - Effi Netzer singers
76 Batonga - Angelique Kidjo
77 In a Lifetime - Maire Brennan & Bono
78 Culture Club - Do you really want to hurt me?
79 Forbidden Colours - David Sylvian & Ruichi Sakamoto (from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence)
80 Ain't Too Proud to Beg - The Temptations
81 Neil Young - Old Man
82 My Sweet Lord - George Harrison
83 Father & Son - Cat Stevens
84 Sonny - Bobby Hebb
85 Hells Bells - AC/DC
86 Just Like Heaven - The Cure
87 Hatikvah
88 Listening Wind - Talking Heads
89 In the Sun - Blondie
90 Knowledge of Beauty - Dexy's Midnight Runners
91 Amazing - George Michael
92 Street Life - Roxy Music
93 Shot by Both Sides - Magazine
94 Reward - Teardrop Explodes
95 The Prince - Madness
96 Ghost Town - The Specials
97 Uptown Top Ranking - Althea & Donna
98 UB40 - Ivory Madonna
99 Julia Dream - Pink Floyd
100 Try a Little Tenderness - Otis Redding


Bubbling Under:
What Difference Does It Make - The Smiths
I don't know how to love him - Jesus Christ Superstar
The Look of Love- Isaac Hayes
Look of Love - ABC
Supper's Ready - Genesis
I've Got Rhythm - Gene Kelly (in An American in Paris)
Don't You Forget About Me - The Simple Minds
In the beginning there was Rhythm - The Slits
The Marseillaise (in Casablanca)
First Time ever I saw Your Face: Roberta Flack
Strange Fruit: Billie Holliday
Wish Upon a Star (not the Rose Royce version)
Picasso's Last Words - Wings


The Reservoir:
Bob Dylan - You gotta serve somebody, Corrina Corrina
The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven (just for the bit where John Bonham comes in)
Bob Marley & the Wailers - No Woman No Cry
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On, Abraham Martin & John
Van Morrison - Someone Like You
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Switch
The Buzzcocks - Sixteen Again
Sarah - Thin Lizzy
Since You've Been Gone - Rainbow
something by Them
The Message: Grandmaster Flash
The Torture Never Stops - Frank Zappa

Creative Accounting #1

Doobie Brothers = Steely Dan + Earth Wind and Fire


This first Creative Accounting inspired by hearing What a Fool Believes on Victoria Woods' Desert Island Discs

picture courtesy of Super Seventies

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The 39 Steps at the Criterion theatre - our family christmas show

Salami sandwiches from Amici - tube picnic

The mysterious cloudy full moon

School's Out - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Finishing work for Christmas - end of term feeling - marked by lunch at the local Italian

Playing Risk with the enfants terribles on my old set (seems all to be there bar one dice) - haven't played since I was about N's age

A nice piece about my work by Jemima Kiss at the Guardian Media.

Magic Show - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Breaking in to see the Boss and the E Street Band at the Millennium Dome with Rubensteen - Nils' solo on Promised Land



Lunch with the fellas from Holler in Islington, with post-prandial stroll back into Clerkenwell in the cold afternoon winter-opaque air



Finding 3 space invaders around EC1

Bruce Springsteen Magic Tour
set list (partial from memory) December 19, 2007
London, O2 Arena

Radio Nowhere **
Lonesome Day
Magic

Because the Night [he can never get it back from Patti]
She's the One
Living in the Future

Promised Land (Nils solo) ***
Waiting on a Sunny Day (great singalong)
Heart beat track from Magic – Devil’s Arcade *

The Rising
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Jungleland * (Big Man shaded face solo)
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark

America Land ** [a touch of the Pogues with a dash of Woody Guthrie]
Santa Claus is coming to town

Track of the Day

Sleep don't weep by Damien Rice from 9

Track of the Day yesterday

Radio Nowhere by Bruce Springsteen from Magic - as performed by the Boss with the E Street Band to open their show at the Millennnium Dome

Track of the Day

Cold Water by Damien Rice (with the voice of Lisa Hannigan) from O

David Gray begat Damien Rice begat Glen Hansard son of Once

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting with Azka Malik at our work Christmas lunch

Shades of Oscar Wilde at the Cafe Royal

Soho to Fitrovia walk

Track of the Day

Ventura Highway by America - California sunshine vibes on a London Christmas street

Track of the Day

Echoes by Pink Floyd from Meddle

Track of the Day yesterday

'By the Rivers Dark' by Leonard Cohen from the album 'Ten new Songs'

As heard on Something Understood (Radio 4)

Play - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Playing with the Enfants Terribles in Hamleys

Sunday dinner in Highgate Village (en famille au cafe rouge)

Catching a great Leonard Cohen track by chance late night on the radio (and I don't generally like his stuff, so an even better surprise)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Getting back to the gym

Mark Kermode + Simon Mayo Radio 5 fim review podcast

The Christmas lights on our high street, especially the new sketchy santas

Recent Happiness Experiment entries

Thurs 6/12:
Watching D watching The Snowman stage show with rapt attention

Watching N chatting to Duncan Ballantine with real confidence and insight

Family Christmassy outting

Wed 5/12:
The buzz of creativity at the first 4Talent awards

Hooking up with Mark Bowness, colourful creator of TribeWanted

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

A tranquil afternoon at the James Joyce Foundation, Zurich reading about Ulysses - delighted to encounter Fritz Senn again, the man behind the Stiftung James Joyce

The garden above the old town where people play big chess

Another day of flanerie

Ulysses notes

7.Xii.07 Stiftung James Joyce



Joyce's Dublin: A walking guide to Ulysses

Jack McCarthy

Wolfhound Press, Dublin 1986



0800 at Sandycove and 7 Eccles St



1400-1445 B + S cross-paths in the National Library



1455-1600 City odyssey/wandering rocks

Odd, at sea

B + S at book stalls nr Liffey



2000-2100 B is on the beach S traversed in the morning



2200-2300 B + S cross-paths in Holles Street National Maternity Hospital (my current location - chapter 14) - B then follows S



2400-0100 Nighttown

Then known as Monto (after Montgomery St) - towards Ballybough?

B comes to S's assistance after being knocked down by a British soldier (Joyce rescued by a jew incident)



0100-0200 Cabman's shelter

B finally meets S

82 Tyrone St Lower now Railway St = Bella Cohens



0200-0245 Bloom's House

Catechism



0200-0217 Molly's bedroom



Parallels:

A/B

U/M

Irish-Jewish



Ulysses to AG as Ned Kelly to oz painter

Odyssey > Ulysses > AGwk



1 sandycove / telemachus

2 school, dalkey / nestor

3 sandymount strand / proteus

4 eccles st / calypso

5 south dublin streets / lotus eaters

6 funeral procession / hades

7 freeman's journal / aeolus

8 lunch, davy byrne's / lestrygonians

9 national library / scylla & charybdis

10 city odyssey / wandering rocks

11 ormond hotel / sirens

12 barney kiernan's /cyclops

13 sandymount strand / nausicaa

14 holles st / oxen of the sun

15 nighttown / circe

16 cabman's shelter / eumaeus

17 eccles st / ithaca

18 molly's bedroom / penelope



[ ] Table

[ ] Website

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading a murder mystery set in le Marais (my favourite part of Paris - visited en famille for the first time just a few weeks ago) - and bought at Felony & Mayhem in Greenwich Village, New York last week



Getting better - my ankle injured playing rugby yesterday



Approaching launch of Picture This

Track of the Day

Stolen Moments by Oliver Nelson from The Blues and the Abstract Truth

Fighting and Loving Irish - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Showing off Big Art Project / Big Art Mob to the World Congress of Science & Factual Producers

A route march across Manhattan to find Fighting Irish Tshirts for the enfants terribles

Chicken soup and latkes - and the lively group of brothers in the corner of Mr Broadway (old school brothers, something very Irish about their noisy chat and laughter)

Village Voice - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The waitress at the Grey Dog in Greenwich Village which I visited with Marty Casella

Seeing Marty again after all these years and wandering around the Village with him, including the huge Picasso sculpture in the NYU residence

A chance encounter and lively chat with a fella about to do a tour of the East Village - he told me about Jim Powers' street mosaics

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

A ride in a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park at the peak of its autumnal colours (the driver was from Leitrim) - the clip clop

A visit to Moma - Andrew Wyeth's painting of the girl in the pink dress de dos in the hay field (her grey gripping hands and wisps of hair like the hay)

The emergence of the NYC Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving (which BTW is a great idea for a holiday)

Reunited - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing Michael + Deborah again after a few years - we reunited at the fabulous Robert Capa exhibition at the International Centre for Photography, New York

Burger & shake lunch in the sun-drenched Empire Diner - including a Spiked Nog cocktail (rum, nutmeg and stuff)

Wander through West Chelsea and the revitalised Meatpacking District with Deborah, Michael and Tara in the low autumnal sun

Track of the Day

Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa - played looking out over New York (albeit around Madison)

NYC - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

First view of America - a narrow long island or strip lit by the setting sun, bordered seaward by a thin wall of light sand and green/brown land, containing channels and tamed sea, meandering rivers and occasional harbours



Being a flaneur around night-time New York around Madison and 45th (having been reading Edmund White's The Flaneur)



Watching a French film on the plane to NYC - Ne le dit a Personne (Tell No-one) - a classy thriller starring Francois Cluzet who has aspects of Dustin Hoffman

Track of the Day

Poison Arrow by ABC

Track of the Day

That Girl by Stevie Wonder

Memories of Rue de Saintonge in the 3e - Paris, chez Marcelino Truong et Lara

Friday on my mind - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Political chat with Steve Moore over lunch

The Christmassy feel of our high street at night (without any decoration)

Fridays

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Introducing N to the Fighting Irish

Setting up NYC trip

Fresh night sodium orange air

Right Charlie - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Fascinating chat with writer/director Peter Kosminsky (Britz, The Government Inspector, Warriors) about his forthcoming project

Fixing on the title of my next project - Medicine Chest - thought it up in the back of a cab in Prague

Hearing about D's talk at school about Charlie Chaplin for which he dressed up in bowler, moustache, cane and suit and demoed the funny walk to his class

Dead calm - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Sunday afternoon movies with the enfants terribles when the weather's rubbish

Reading crime novels

Jogging in the cemetery - now in line with government policy I understand

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Being passed on by a kind intermediary a compliment about my work which meant a lot to me

Eating while reading the newspaper

The warm smile of our local pharmacist Paresh

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Going to the revamped St Pancras station with the enfants terribles and their cousins and my bro

Watching Quentin Blake draw a train full of weird&wonderful things including a little boy in a bowler hat (D was out&about in his Chaplin hat)

Mooching about Camden Passage with D

Track of the Day

Another Girl Another Planet - The Only Ones (in the car driving back from Islington up the Holloway Road with D)

Star Spot #438

12.11.07 Bill Bailey, comedian (at C4)

Inheritance Tracks - soul train

This whole blog stems from considerations of inheritance - Simple Pleasures part 1 summarised it thus: “This blog is inspired by a sermon I heard a couple of years ago which quoted a ‘will’ left by a father for his children which was not his ‘money will’ but his ‘wisdom will’ (I can’t remember the exact terminology that was used but you get the idea) - it was his attempt to pass on some of the more useful things he’d learnt in his lifetime about what really matters and about the way people are. I’ve come to the conclusion over my forty-one years so far on the planet that Happiness is to be found primarily in the Simple Pleasures of life so I’ve decided to put some of those pleasures here for my boys to read when they’re a bit older and anyone else who cares to. And one day soon N and D can start adding their own…”

This morning I was listening to Saturday Live on Radio 4 and as always when I catch it looking forward to the Inheritance Track section (today it was Marianne Faithfull's). Now I'm as much a sucker for parlour games as the next man, especially ones to do with music, and this is a premiere league one. It works thus: The person in question choses a track which they have inherited from their parents and one which they would like to pass on to their children. Simple but sweet.

It relates very closely to an audio project I began several years ago which I'm planning to resume very shortly online (it pretty much predates the web!) - it's called Songlines. More to follow on that soon.

So I kicked off a little convo about inheritance tracks on the Donald Byrd post just before this one, and am resuming it back here in a post of its own.

I'm divided on my Inherited Track between 'Everything's Alright' from 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Soolaimon' by Neil Diamond from 'Hot August Night' - not too cool, not too sexy - but that's not what it's about.

When I was a young teenager I spent hours at a time in our dining room colouring these huge, complex poster-size pictures on the table whilst listening to my mum's copy of the Jesus Christ Superstar stageshow soundtrack - a really dodgy old copy with a lit red candle on the slightly textured cover. Hours of good clean, godly fun. Simple pleasures.

The 1973 movie of JC Superstar directed by Norman Jewison really struck me when I saw it - almost converted me! A bunch of hippies arrive in a bus in the middle of the Israeli desert, set up some modern scenary, get into some modern-style costumes and start singing their way through one of the greatest stories ever told... Between that and Jeffrey Hunter in 1961's King of Kings and I'm a sucker for Pre-raphaelite Jesuses.

But I think I'll opt for the Neil Diamond song which comes from the 8-track in my step-dad Maurice's car. I loved the cover - some long-haired hippy in a denim jacket clutching his groin to squeeze the full power of his cahones [a technical music term from Carlos Santana] into his singing. Little did I know it was a clean-cut Jewish Brill Building songsmith (aka Noah Kaminsky) in disguise. Looking back at it it was the gospel-intensity passion of his voice that struck a chord with me.

Lord of my need, need, need
Leading me on, on, on
God of my day, day, day
Lord of my night, night, night

From this live version of Soolaimon I can see a path to a spine of spiritual songs running through the music I love from Dylan to Van to (the greatest living performer) Bruce Springsteen to Marvin Gaye to Coltrane.

Which leads my nicely to my Bequest Track: Miles Davis' 'Flamenco Sketches' from 'Kind of Blue' (which of course features Trane). Why pass it on? Because it's a transcendent piece of music that takes you to a very peaceful place.

I can number the totally transcendent musical experiences I've had on the fingers of one hand - that is, experiences of listening to recorded music (I'm not venturing into the realm of live music here) where it has taken me to Another Place. The tracks include:
* Love theme from Spartacus by Bill Evans (also on Flamenco Sketches - I was in Buckley Road, Kilburn at the time, pretty much outside the house of David Baddiel who introduced me to Kind of Blue in King's College, Cambridge)
* Hyperballad by Bjork (Junction Road, Archway)
* Into the Fire by Bruce Springsteen (Boscastle Road, Parliament Hill)
and, of course,
* Flamenco Sketches (on the road back from Ayot St Lawrence, near St Albans - coming home from George Bernard Shaw's house)

I'm not sure what GBS had to say about music beyond his definition of Dancing as "the vertical expression of a horizontal desire legalized by music."

Neil Diamond has been quite snappy on the subject: "Songs are life in 80 words or less."

But I'll leave the final word to Miles as it chimes in perfectly with the tenor of this blog: "My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life."

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking down to Nahling, the local Thai, with the Boyz to mark the start of the weekend

Trying to help BAFTA get its shit together on the Interactive front with Malcolm Garrett and accomplices

Buying dressing up gear from Culture Vultures, one of the weirder of our weird local shops - Charlie Chaplin moustaches and canes and moustache glue

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Morning sun over the allotments through the freezing air

Looking at the Look & Feel for Picture This

Reading Agatha Christie (4.50 from Paddington) on the train to and from work

Track of the Day

Cristo Redendor by Donald Byrd

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Being asked to be a trustee of the Stopped Clocks charity



The tranquility of Muswell Hill at night - driving Jeremy through night-time London



N and D's reports/teacher consultations - both love learning

Gigs - Sinead & America

Sinead O'Connor (Damien Dempsey)

Festival Hall

Mon, Nov 12, 2007

Theology Tour



1 Emperor's New Clothes

2 (grave song)

3 Thief of My Heart

4 Out of Ireland (preacher song)

5 «Theology songs»

6 If you had a Vineyard ***

7 Nothing Compares 2U *

8 Thank you (for loving me)

9 accapella trio (My Love)

10 Encore: Black boys on mopeds

11 Junkie Lies***



America

Roundhouse

Sun, Nov 11, 2007

Here & Now Tour



1 Ventura Highway **

2 «Here & Now»

3 I Need You ***

4 Sandman

5 Encore: Horse with No Name*

Nothing Compares 2 Sinead - Track of the Day

If You Had a Vineyard as performed by Sinead O'Connor at the Festival Hall this evening - based on scriptures from the Book of Isaiah (verbatim)



Me & Sinead: our history

* 1980s Irish Festival at the Barbican with U

* Forum (Kentish Town) with Roddy & Eddie

* Cambridge Corn Exchange with U

* Empire (Shepherd's Bush) playing with Sly & Robbie c2005 Throw Down Your Arms tour with Jonathan Holmes

* Festival Hall tonight

Irish blood - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Sinead O'Connor at the Festival Hall with Neil Burgess (highlights: If you had a Vineyard and Junkie Lies) - supported by Damien Dempsey (= Paul Brady [modern sean nos] + Christie Moore [bullish politics] + Sting [eccentric accent])

Evening walk from Horseferry Road through Westminster to Festival Hall

Apologising to N (about discouraging homework incident yesterday)

Round the house - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing America play at the Roundhouse, their first gig there since 1971, the year after they formed (highlights: Ventura Highway and I Need You)

Teaching N how to drop kick

Sunday roast (chicken) at home

America - Track of the Day

I Need You as performed tonight by America at the Roundhouse, London

America last played the Roundhouse in 1971

(it struck me this evening: America = Crosby Stills & Nash + Steely Dan)


I need you
Like the flower needs the rain
You know, I need you
Guess I'll start it all again
You know, I need you
Like the winter needs the spring
You know I need you
I need you

Recent Happiness Experiment entries

Today:

Going to the Lord Mayor's Show with D - the view of him standing at the end of Little Britain when we first arrived (the street in the City, not the TV show)

Watching Die Hard 4 en famille

Photographing Louise Bourgeois' spider with N - a chip off the old photographic block

Yesterday:

Spotting two matching girls on the street in Prague with Alfie - photographic flaneurs together

Lunch at the Golem restaurant around the old Jewish quarter

Reading Agatha Christie's '4.50 from Paddington' on the 23.20 to Paddington

Czech it out - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

My first impressions of Prague - a night view of the river from behind the Kafka Museum, towards the Charles Bridge (dark ducks in the foreground)

Walking over the bridge in the darkness in my long black coat

Coming runner-up in the Eureka Mobile Awards with Big Art Mob - losing to some porno outfit who squeeze 55 dollars a week out of their users - adding to the dark surreality of this place

Striking gold - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Winning the second ever RTS (Royal Television Society) Innovation Award with Big Art Mob - there were only 6 and one went to Flash Video (as in the whole web video technology by Adobe) - enjoyed the experience with the whole team from all the small partners and my other half



Winning the London Design Festival (Y design) People's Choice Award with Empire's Children - two in a day, that was special



Starting an Agatha Christie - 4.50 from Paddington (in a beautiful facsimile 50s edition) - on the day the queen reopened St Pancras - I do love stations

Track of the Day

Statued by Adem from Homesongs

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Entering Channel 4 this morning on its 25th anniversary day - view from the staircase (colour of the Golden Gate bridge) of the Big 4 (Heart) with yellow autumn trees in the background - proud to work for the place - swopped emails with Peter Kosminsky, Britz last night was very Channel 4 as is the Big 4 - bold, creative, stuff nobody else would do or think of

Hooking up at Bvsh House with Philip Dodd and Camilla Deakins to scheme about animation and China

Bush House - at the moment of Channel 4's birth (4.45) was entering the BBC at their World Service Radio base, once (I heard) the most expensive building in the world - where years ago I enjoyed recording some stuff for their arts programme Monitor

Track of the Day

Station to Station by David Bowie

Starspot #136

2/11/07 Jimmy Carr (at Channel 4 - on its 25th birthday)

25/10/07 Colin Firth (in foyer of Vue(?) cinema on south side of Leicester Square)

Tour de force - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading a thriller - Robert Harris' Ghost writing - in the back of a London cab

Talking about education at the Hospital with James Bradburne, Martha Lane Fox, Ewan Mcintosh & co.

D's drawing of the Eiffel Tower for Marco

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Dinner at Cutler's Hall - the annual gathering of recipients of educational support and scholarships from the Worshipful Company of Cutlers

Visiting the wine cellar - the best red wine I ever tasted (25 years ago) came from there

Meeting a young fencing champion at the dinner - hoping to compete at the 2012 Olympics for GB

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Rufus Wainright showboating at Hammersmith Odeon - a performance of great variety including a moving rendition of John McCormick's Macushla (apologies to any gaelic speakers for my spelling) [= heart-throb]



Visiting Emily Allchurch's exhibition with Malcolm Garrett, Buzzcocks designer



Walking across height-of-autumn St James's Park in the low afternoon light

Track of the Day

Machushla performed by Rufus Wainright in the style of John McCormick (without amplification) as gotten from Kate McGarrigle

Rufus = Jeff Buckley meets Tom Lehrer meets Neil Young (?) meets Broadway

Paris I - recent Happiness Experiment entries

Sat 27:

Les bouquinistes - buying D a little Eiffel Tower as we searched for a view of the real thing

Urban photography

Lunch en famille on the Ile Saint-Louis - at a cross-roads with two old mini Fiats parked

Sun 28:

Food market at Bastille - fresh salad leaves

Wander aroung the 16e including afternoon cocktail on 33rd floor of Palais de Congres

First official winter late afternoon in Le Marais - reading in the dark Place des Vosges

Mon 29:

Tommy returning home in the dark - under a low yellow moon

International train travel

Rainy interior chez Marco - cozy hanging out with the family

We'll always have Paris - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking through the Place des Vosges and the Marais en famille - the enfants terribles' first visit to Paris



Dinner with Marco and Christian Preart at Marco's new pad in the Rue de la Roquette, 11e



Finding a Space Invader on arrival at Place Leon Blum

Quote of the day

"Mum, you're such a hobo!"
N as U went to steal a grape near the Rue des Rosiers

Happiness shared - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Hearing the story behind 'Into the Wild' from Sean Penn and his young lead Emile Hirsch at a viewing at the Vue, Leicester Square - plenty of food for thought in that one on the simple pleasures front



The prospect of a weekend en famille in Paris - swopping practical arrangement emails with Marco Truong



Walking through St James's Park after dark - the lit-up London Eye at the end of the lake

Into the Wild - thought for the day

"Happiness is real only when shared"



Written in the margin of a book which lay open by the body of Chris McCandliss in the Magic Bus, parked up in the wilds of Alaska



Whilst I broadly agree, I can think of moments which are exceptions - like swimming outdoors in the light rain overlooking the snow-capped Rockies in Banff this summer (shi-it, now I've shared it with you...)

Streets of London - today's Happiness Experiment entry

Clerkenwell

Poached eggs

Lunch outdoors in Charlotte Street with David Bausola, shooting the breeze

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Colours of late afternoon sun

Successful speaking gig at Screen West Midlands in the jewellery quarter in Brum

Plenty of innuendo laffs at kick-off meeting for Embarrassing Illnesses Online at Maverick in Birmingham - in you end oh? geddit?

Quotation of the day

This is a tough one but a good yardstick for those of us who have gone through the one most significant transformation in life: from being a Child to being a Parent...

"A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets
used up."
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

We need to be careful not to exhaust ourselves or let ourselves be exhausted. We need to take care of ourselves, recharge our batteries, stay inspired...

Star spots #156

Sebastian Coe - The Atrium
Frank Skinner - Channel 4
Paul Morley - LSO St Lukes

Come together - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

When the crowd came together at the climax of Angie Stone's gig at the Jazz Caff

The look of rum bottles - rum cocktails

Walking home in autumn

Kicks - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

N starting to blossom in rugby

Building an Airfix Spitfire and Mescherschmitt outdoors with D

Pullling by Black Gull Books on thw walk home

Dappled shade - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Under the trees on Maria's allotment drinking her perfect Greek coffee with Katherine, visiting from Aspen

Watching the England-South Africa World Cup rugby final with Ja on the tv in Bar Italia in the room below where TV was first demonstrated by Logie Baird (my favourite blue plaque)

Carleen Anderson doing Night in Tunisia in Ronnie Scott's - family outting for Mo's birthday

Patti cake - today's Happiness Experiment entry

Having a conversation with Patti Smith about Rimbaud in London (whose birthday it is tommorow) - after her performance with Philip Glass and Lenny Kaye at St Lukes, Old Street in honour of Allen Ginsberg



Having a quick chat with Paul Morley about Joy Division and Control in said church



Lunch with Will Gompertz at the Tate Britain restaurant with a quick tour of the Millais exhibition for dessert

Track of the Day

One by U2 - performed both by U2 and Johnny Cash

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One...
Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head?

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting about Public Art with Jo Darke of the Courtauld Institute and sculptor Nick Pearson at Somerset House

Walking to and from the Courtauld in strong autumn sunshine

Sorting out 360 degree images of the Big 4

Big Day - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Unveiling of the Big 4 public artwork - decorated in the first instance by Nick Knight - created a real buzz of energy around Channel 4's HQ in Horseferry Road

Finding out by chance about a second BIMA nomination - Breaking the News for Education & Training category - forgot we'd even entered it

The corner of Soho around Marshall Street - former home of Solus Enterprises and Buzzy Films

This weekend's Happiness Experiment entries

13/10/07

The elation of the England rugby world cup victory over France - extraordinaire! Watched it downstairs at the Lord Palmerstone on Dartmouth Park Hill when I was supposed to be upstairs otherwise engaged - so naughty but nice factor too.



Getting D's compass fixed at the Italian clock-makers in Crouch End



Kicking the rugby ball with N and Gonzalo at Kenwood



14/10

Chatting with Alan Greenberg at the rugby field



Scraping light rods



Moroccan style soup in the autumn sun

Tower power

Top: Emily Allchurch after Bruegel - Tower of London (2005)

Bottom: Bruegel - Tower of Babel (1563)

Tower of London courtesy of Emily Allchurch

The Art of London - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

A talk by gifted and original photographer/artist Emily Allchurch at Channel4, followed by a lovely chance encounter with her later at Frost & Reed gallery in St James's where her current exhibition Urban Chiaroscuro is hanging. She's clearly a great lover of London.

An autumnal afternoon walk through St James's Park with artist Laura Williams, creator of Aluna, the lunar clock - a hugely ambitious public artwork destined to appear on the north bank of the Thames opposite the Millennium Dome at the site of the East India docks. Another lover of London.

Watching the Marx Bros in Duck Soup with the Enfants Terribles - D schticking himself - especially the mirror scene

Bonus pleasures:
Finding out, out of the blue, that Big Art Mob has been shortlisted for a BIMA Award in the Art & Culture category

A splurge at Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly including Peter Ackroyd's new book about the Thames, Robert Harris' new thriller, the first Biggles book for N, Michael Ondaatje's new novel for U, and a John Updike for book group

Yesterday's Track of the Day

Dazed & Confused by Led Zeppelin as performed by Letz Zep - guitar solo by the one&only Chris Cawte


Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you
Lots of people talk and few of them know
Soul of a woman was created below

yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Witnessing Chris Cawte (as Jimmy Page) play an amazing guitar solo, using a cello bow to create weird&wonderful sounds, in Led Zeppelin's Dazed & Confused. Letz Zep played the Underworld in Camden Town - the best Led Zep tribute band in the whole wide world.

Reading Revolutionary Road after resting it for four years

Being filmed by the BBC for a factual tv conference in New York - thank God for post-production, hopefully bits of it made some sense...

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The post-gym zing



Autumn light



N winning his karate competition (kata)







Bonus pleasure:



Healthy eyes

Track of the Day

Dweller on the Threshold by Van Morrison (what a great title - it's got something to do with theosophy)

I'm a dweller on the threshold
And I'm waiting at the door
And I'm standing in the darkness
I don't want to wait no more

I have seen without perceiving
I have been another man
Let me pierce the realm of glamour
So I know just what I am

Was listening to this walking in the darkness on the rainy, tree shadowy street towards Church Vale

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Listening to Van all the way home



Going to visit a school with N (Compton) - musing about what a bad name Sunny Way, where we parked, is on a morning like this morning



Getting an intimate email from U

Two bonus Pleasures:

leaves on my car when i returned in darkness

opening a huge hamper with the Missus and Enfants Terribles - reward from Alchemy cross-platform lab

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The Kindertransporte monument by Liverpool Street station



Roast potatoes



Talking about Affluence + Happiness at the Innovation Reading Circle focused on The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

England getting their shit together in the rugby - a sweet victory



A late afternoon stroll on Bricket Wood Common in Herts.



Tea at the Rugoletta, our local Italian - and the quiet walk home at dusk

Thought for the Day

"books are doors"
Jeanette Winterson
on Radio 4 this morning

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Receiving two RTS Innovation Awards nominations for Big Art Mob and Empire's Children

Family rock-out on Friday evening

Route march to skool with the enfants terribles - beautiful, fresh autumnal morning

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking round in a T-shirt at this time of the year - today's T: my Gil Scott-Heron one from that great Jazz Caff gig (Gil, hope you're peaceful wherever the fuck they've put you)



Watching the Big 4 start to come together under an autumn sun



Thinking about Steve

Deep Joy - today's Happiness Experiment entry

Meeting Peter Hook of Joy Division - he signed my copy of Atmosphere. Atmosphere is used in Anton Corbijn's film Control to mark the discovery of Ian Curtis' death and his ascent into the atmosphere



Watching the offline of the first episode of Picture This featuring Martin Parr and my dealer Alex Proud - on the train to Aardman Animation in Bristol



Reading with D in the garden, in the fading light of an autumn evening

Known Pleasure - Track of the Day

Isolation by Joy Division as featured in the film Control - about two minutes ago I met Peter Hook at the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley : the last time I saw him was nearly 30 years ago at the Lyceum in Lodon supporting the Buzzcocks - tonight I remember Ian Curtis and my friend Steve Simmons, may they rest in peace


But if you could just see the beauty
These things I could never describe
These pleasures a wayward distraction
This is my one lucky prize

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

A train journey back from Crewe with fellow travelers Jaqueline Hurt of Olswang, Jon Kingsbury of BBC and Garret Keogh of RDF

Fresh air and sunshine

Coming home

Wealth

"The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money."


John Henry Jowett

The Whole Blues - track of the day

Lonely Avenue / 4 O'clock in the Morning (live medley) by Van Morrison with Jimmy Witherspoon from Best of Van #3

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Van duets on the train (from Best Of, Vol 3 - a model Best Of)

The fresh potatoes cooked by Luis (with oregano and garlic) at the barby on the allotments

Walking around the hood with D on scooter in the autumn sunday afternoon sun - including a quick visit to Black Gull bookshop

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Kicking a conversion over at the Garden Suburb rugby pitch with N & D

Reading Life Class by the balcony

Writing a Doors/Bible mash-up, vaguely poetic

Sweet soul - Track of the Day

Marvin Gaye - Just to keep you satisfied

Life class - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading Pat Barker's Life Class on the way home

Lunch chat with the Creative Accountant (Sydney Levinson)

Listening to Tom Ravenscroft on Channel 4 Radio - a chip off the old block (John Peel) in a not-yet-fully-formed sorta way

In the picture - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Going to the pictures with my gal - Michael Clayton with George Clooney



Kick-off meeting for Medicine Men Online with Zam, Livio and Mike - very excited about this one



Walky talky via the Tate with Jonathan Holmes - a quick epic burst of John Martin

Talk talk - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Talking about young documentary-makers' work with Nick Broomfield, Molly Dineen, Patrick Uden and Peter Dale



Talking Public Art with Peter Jenkinson



Getting an advance ticket for Anton Corbijn's Control at the Phoenix, East Finchley with Joy Division's Pete Hook in attendance (3rd Oct)

Track of the Day

And It Stoned Me - Van Morrison

The next generation - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Contributing to the Byron Review - a first encounter with Dr Tanya Byron

Visiting Finchley Catholic High School with N

Contributing to the FilmFour Working Group

Monday's Happiness Experiment entry

A guided walk by David Rosenberg around the radical Jewish East End with my step-father, a member of the anti-fascist 43 Group (and later the 62 Group), and my son (already a staunch anti-nazi of his own volition)

An empty market (Wentworth Street) at twilight, with all its shades

N's Tintin haircut

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting with Alfie Dennen, street survivor and make-up artiste extraordinaire



The allotments at night - viewed from under a sodium lit tree



Sinead O'Connor's voice

Track of the day

Kingdom of Rain by Sinead O'Connor and Matt Johnson of The The

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my horse

"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart."

Iris Murdoch



"Don't forget the trusty old steed, Iris."

Me

Track of the day

Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa



Memories of an unlabeled black cassette swopped with a GI in Germany - "What the fuck" I thought "is this?"

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Views along the Tyne (I love a good river)

Doing a speaking gig at the Sage in Gateshead - keynote speech for Digital Film 2.0

Remembering the BLink shoots/road-trips - the last time I was in Newcastle was on a shoot with Roddy & Eddie of Emerald Productions - what larks!

Park life - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Empire's Children (www.channel4.com/empire) picking up the Y Design Award for Best Community website at the London Design Festival

Walking across Hendon park (once in the bright morning, again in the dark) where many years ago I played football in a purple jersey

Getting N's first iPod up&running

South Bank show - Tuesday's Happiness Experiment entry

Sitting outdoors outside the Queen Elizabeth Hall/Purcell Room on the South Bank where I was giving a talk on Big Art Mob (www.bigartmob.com) and designing for online community as part of the London Design Festival/iDesign - chats in the sun with Nikki Barton, Alfie Dennen etc.

Walking across Hungerford pedestrian bridge above the sunlit Thames

Those leather chairs in the Purcell Room - 50s jet pilot style

A message for martyrs from dear, dear Oscar

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."

Oscar Wilde



"There are some very stupid men in the world prepared to die for lies or make-believe"

Me

Track of the Day

Remote Control by The Clash

Track of the Day (yesterday)

Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers

30 years old this year

Starspots #551

Ken Loach
Frank Skinner

(today, Horseferry Road)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

David Sylvian's singing and Steve Jansen's percussion playing - live at the Festival Hall with Neil B

The backstreets of Westminster towards sunset

The carpet, colours, boxes and interior wonderfulness of the Festival Hall

Track of the day

Snow borne Sorrow by David Sylvian (Nine Horses) as performed this evening at the Festival Hall, London (my first visit since its revamp - what a brilliant building)


So we made it our own
This snow borne sorrow
And this love that stutters and splinters

Let the children come to me

Southward Ho! - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Arriving at Mariners Quay to the strains of Led Zep - after recent upgrade of the facilities

Loading up N's fiirst iPod - a blue Shuffle for his birthday

Watching World Cup rugby

Track of the Day

(Smells Like) Teen Spirit by Nirvana - heralding roadtrip to Brighton

Veneer of the Week

In the absence of Shadbolt's, just a space now as we pass by on the way to Brighton, I'm going to decide my own Veneer of the Week:

Light Derry Oak

Power of Art - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Working in Tate Modern - memories of photo-expeditions when it was an empty old powerstation in a wind-swept no-man's-land



Chatting to Will Gompertz



Listening to Mark Kermode's podcast (aka Mark Fairey, a bigger boy at skool) and enjoying his banter with Simon Mayo

44 - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Getting a card from the enfants terribles depicting a scene from DV8's Cost of Living film (commissioned by Jan Younghusband at Channel 4) - we all saw the film in the evening on the big screen at the Channel 4 Arts 25th Anniversary season at the Barbican



Meeting Malcolm Garrett at BAFTA, designer of Buzzcocks record sleeves and fellow student with Pete Saville in Manchester in the good old days



A birthday dinner outside the Barbican by the fountains, heron and reeds at sundown

Yesterday's Track of the Day

What Do I Get by the Buzzcocks



To celebrate meeting Malcolm Garrett who designed great sleeves like A Different Music for Another Kitchen

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The streets behind Tate Britain - walked through them on the way to a meeting with Will Gompertz of Tate Media

Kevin Rowland's voice

Finishing Exodus

Track of the Day

Celtic Soul Brothers by Dexy's Midnight Runners



I'm falling in love with Kevin Rowland's voice

Excuse me please, you're standing in my space,
So step aside, now your time's up.

Slow Sunday - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Breakfast with Matteo - catch up over beigels and coffee in the cool light of day



Lunch outdoors by the canal at the Black Horse at Great Linford, Bucks.



Giggling at the traffic lights listening to Just a Minute

Yesterday's Track of the Day

Out on the Weekend by Neil Young from Harvest



Think I'll pack it in and buy a pick-up

Take it down to LA

Find a place to call my own and try to fix up

Start a brand new day...

Party Line - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing Matteo Fox after a good while and having an old time fiesta together

Aislinn's speech for her dad's 50th, and Rose's Corinne Bailey Rae duet - plus the live blues (including Folsom Prison Blues) at the party

An hour solo in Camden Market - including the comic shop and picking up some 60s football boot style trainers

Track of the Day

Billie Jean by Michael Jackson - watching the first moonwalk with D + N - that fella sure knew how to shake a leg

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching dance vids on YouTube with the boyz - even learnt how to moonwalk



Bourne and Maria reuniting in Greece - love her dimple



Chatting over al fresco lunch in Highgate with Robin Hamman of BBC community/blogs - ended up costing me £950 (for a new Mac Book)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

My street at night

Reading my Dad's old copy of Exodus

Hatching art plans with Fiddian Warman of Soda on the terrace

Star spots #332

05/09 Jeremy Isaacs
06/09 the Irish fella from The IT Crowd
(ages ago) the curly haired geek from The IT Crowd
06/09 Victor Lewis Smith
(all in the office)

Extra Track of the Day

Down in Missisippi by Mavis Staples with Ry Cooder

Awesome sound - halleluyah!

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking the enfants terribles to skool, first day back (aargh!)

Setting up Big Art Mob China

My iPod Shuffle - small, orange, loud and perfectly formed - and right now playing Sympathy for the Devil live in 68

Track of the Day

Sarah by Thin Lizzy

Some rather dated 80s instrumentation but Philo's voice rings loud and true

Jim on Friends

"A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself - and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is."

Jim Morrison of The Doors

Track of the day

Knowledge of Beauty by Dexy's Midnight Runners

Promo shot by Jack Hazan of Solus Enterprises

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking through St James's Park at twilight - thanks tube strikers

Talk by Kevin Spacey in the old City of London School building (now JP Morgan) courtesy of the British-American Project

The Big Art Mob / Map broaches Italy

Old School Joke

Why have elephants got big ears?

Because Noddy won't pay the ransom.

yesterday's Track of the Day

Cracklin' Rosie by Neil Diamond - enlivened by memories of Shane MacGowan's rambunctious version

Hitchin on a twilight train
Ain't nothing here that I care to take along
Maybe a song
To sing when I want
Don't need to say please to no man for a happy tune