Three - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Driving into the sunset through the weird industrial landscape of Dagenham - windmills, pylons and factories



Walking along the river at Southease with N + D - swans, church towers, yellow fields



First listen to Patti Smith's Twelve - especially Smells Like Teen Spirit

Track of the Day

All along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

Memories of last week's YouTube sesh with D - an introduction to Pete Townsend, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page

Track of the Day

Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit as covered by Patti Smith on her new record Twelve - bass and banjo stylee

A mulatto
An albino
A mosquito
My libido

Bjork on Music

"Music for me is like fact. Totally like algebra. ... In a weird way it's about maths and physics."

Swimming in April - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The Volks Railway from Blackrock with N&D - D's delighted smiles - that great expanse of stones sea sky - a loving txt from U

On the beach at Saltdean - first sea swim of the year (f..f...bracing) - starting Joseph O'Connor's new novel Redemption Falls - watching the boyz playing

Breakfast at The Mock Turtle - with a very affectionate D - buck rarebit and a taste of sasparilla

Brighton rocks - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Night-driving to late-nite music courtesy of Orbital's Back to Mine selection - some Lee Perry and introducing the kidz to the theme from Robinson Crusoe (that dubbed French black&white version they used to have on morning tv)

Setting off for Brighton with N+D - a weekend's R&R - anticipating beach and milkshakes and all the usual stuff

Watching D walking out with his tartan guitar case

big art - today's Happiness Experiment entry

watching music and dance with the Enfants Terribles - including Jesus Christ Superstar and Buddy Rich

chatting to Mick the painter in the garden at lunchtime

polishing the Big Art Project site - something to be proud of, especially once Big Art Mob launches next week

Bass line - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Flamenco Sketches by Miles Davis on the way home - calming bass line



Posting my first picture to Big Art Mob



Wearing trusty old Converses

Track of the Day - A Blue Supreme

So What by Miles Davis (from Kind of Blue)

Picture courtesy: www.fractalus.com

My Little Empire - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading about the Raj and the British Empire in sample copy for Empire's Children

Wearing my Nigel Hall shirt (light blues short sleeved, oval buttons)

Reading Time Out for the first time in years - including a very interesting bit about the Dublin Castle in Camden, one of four nationally-linked pubs designed to separate the railway workers from the four corners of the UK/Ireland from one another and prevent fighting and consequent absenteeism

A River Runs Through It - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The sound of a river running - the River Ver at Brickett Wood, Herts.

Sunny Sunday afternoon walks en famille

Jon Snow's infectious enthusiasm at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards

Track of the Day - Hurt

Hurt performed by Johnny Cash (written by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor)

A great opening...


I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real

Steady as she goes - yesterday's Happiness Experiment

dinner at Annie & Seth's - good food, good company

drawing Ralph Steadman style - in my new sketch book from Cork

reading in the garden in the afternoon sun - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (punctuated with Ralph's drawings)

Track of the Day (yesterday)

Just Like Heaven - The Cure (from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me)

as covered by (dare i say it) Katie Melua as a gentle love song which throws the original into a new light


"Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream" she said
"The one that makes me laugh" she said
And threw her arms around my neck
"Show me how you do it
And I promise you, I promise that
I'll run away with you
I'll run away with you"

Going live - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Human Footprint going live



Playing on Facebook - touching base with Orla (even had a chat about the sudden uptake with Paul Birch of Bebo who i bumped into at the swimming pool)



Kicking off the Big Art Mob closed beta

With these hands - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Listening to the gospel power of My City of Ruins by Bruce Springsteen, a Music Moment - powered my morning exercise (including a record 125 on the bike)



A pair of black hot pants (in Francis Street, SW1)



Reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter Thompson and enjoying Ralph Steadman's perfectly in tune illustrations - inspired to try my hand at that style of drawing

Track of the day - Come on rise up!

My City of Ruins - Bruce Springsteen (from The Rising)




Now with these hands
I pray Lord
With these hands
For the strength Lord
With these hands
For the faith Lord
With these hands
I pray Lord
With these hands
For the strength Lord
With these hands
For the faith Lord
With these hands

Come on rise up!
Come on rise up!

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching The Real Casino Royale recorded from BBC4



Reading an early draft of a radio play about fascist filly Unity Mitford



A 'lively' meeting with Ishmahil Blagrove from Rice'n'Peas

Solid Air

Wending my merry way home from the Albert Hall and a very special performance by John Martyn - the whole of the Solid Air album, plus a few other beautiful songs.



He opened with Cooltide, a tune I really love and which is welded for me to sunset on the Nile - i took it with me on a leisurely cruise up the nile to Aswan with my mum, mr first experience of Africa.



The highlight of Solid Air was the outstanding Don't Want to Know. The man is not only a master of lyrics of great simplicity and substance, but he also has a vocal and instrumental styling which is entirely unique.



And as for the song Solid Air, it's difficult to listen to without thinking of Nick Drake and what a contrast - Nick frozen in eternal youth and John battling on bravely through the wear and tear of aging. And then you think of those Romantic curls on the cover of London Conversation. What a long and winding road...

Kiss the Sun - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching John Martyn perform the Solid Air album at the Albert Hall with Neil Burgess

Reading plays for The Radio Play's the Thing

Going through the designs for Empire's Children with Davie McGirr and the Illumina crew

Track of the day - Only want to know about love

Don't want to know - John Martyn (from Solid Air)


And I don't want to know about evil
Only want to know about love
I don't want to know one thing about evil
Only want to know about love.

I'm waiting for the planes to tumble
Waiting for the towns to fall
I'm waiting for the cities to crumble
Waiting till I see you crawl.

Track of the day

Stolen Moments - Oliver Nelson (from The Blues and the Abstract Truth)

Gems - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Doing a Gem art workshop with D and N at the Gilbert Collection in Somerset House

Hanging out in the Fountain courtyard at Somerset House, reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

A back massage at Bernard's

A Numbers Game - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Testing Human Footprint interactive - life in numbers



Finishing a good novel - Restless by William Boyd - partly by the Home Office building whose coloured glass features come into their own in bright sunshine



Watching Jazz Dispute on Germ

Irish eyes - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking up Slieve Foy as far as the ridge (with U N & D), then over into Glen Mor - the smooth grass-covered path just above Slate Rock

The last of the evening sun down in Greenore, silhouetting the little lighthouse - teaching the boys to skim stones

Watching a documentary in gaellic with U about the internment camp in Wales (F...) where Michael Collins and the supporters of the Easter Rising were locked up throughout 1916, unwittingly in a university of revolution - history and historical documentaries

Child's Play - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching D making a fire - then reading (Wiliam Boyd's Restless) by it

Visiting Anna's sweet shop in Carlingford, Co. Louth with N and D - a vestige of the old Cairlinn

Playing soldiers with D in Dan's garden - he was an American while I was the German baddie who likes 'chess music'

Fair City - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The cloistered courtyard of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in bright sunshine - with U looking at the Miro and Calder sculptures, as well as Georgia O'Keeffe Nature and Abstraction exhibition

Drawing on the beach at Malahide in my new notebook (hand-bound in Cork)

Wandering around Dublin with N and D all morning, including an Easter visit to the GPO retelling the story of the uprising (as we retold the Exodus the other night)

Rush Head - today's Happiness Experiment entry

On the beach at Rush with Sean, Orla, Meabh, N, D and U - Lambey Island hazy off shore

Chatting to my nieces and nephews - Meabh just into the top Dublin art school, Orla just landed a scholarship in Washington and Sean's band United Tribe just launched their new LP on the splendidly named Rastafenian Records (it's reggae based out of Dublin)

Going through Meabh's portfolio

The Old Country - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Setting foot back on the Emerald Isle after more than a year - seeing my niece Orla



Starting a new book - William Boyd's new novel Restless



Playing drawing games with N on the plane - he created a terminator of Man Utd supporters

Small World - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Bumping into my bro and kids at the Arena sculpture outside the National Theatre by chance - then into Anne Hooper and Phillip Hodson outside the Festival Hall also by chance - that occasional feeling that London's not so big



On the same theme, watching a street performer in the piazza at Covent Garden with D who was enraptured - a fellow Moblogger it turned out was watching the same comedy knife-throwing



Chatting with my down-the-street neighbour Tim (as he polished his black Porsche, the latest in a long line of fine cars he seems to trade as a business - his own black Maserati is the most beautiful in my eyes, for that little bit of subtlety and restraint)

Photo:
John Maine : "Arena" 1983-88 (Portland stone) - which I watched the artist build
courtesy of Pomphorhynchus

Star Spot #366

Ian Wright

Jon Ronson

Rory Bremner

Alan Yentob

(All around Horseferry Road - 3/07)