We People (track of the day)

We People Who Are Darker than Blue - performed by Sinead O'Connor on her new LP Theology - written by Curtis Mayfield - the Irish word for a black person translates into English as 'blue man'

today's Happiness Experiment entry

lunch at the local Italian in Church Lane al fresco

listening to Any Questions, Robert Elms and Desert Island Discs at home

a bright blue sky with classic white clouds (above the fence of Martin School)

Empire of the Senses - Wednesday's Happiness Experiment entry

The launch of the Empire's Children website and series at the screening room of the Charlotte Street Hotel with its just-right red leather seats



Walking in the rain in a Mayfair mews



Revisiting Soho - echoes of those Solus days

City Lights - today's Happiness Experiment entry

Getting home - a gentle night breeze and swaying roses in the backstreets



Having my photo of City Lights bookstore in San Francisco selected by a guidebook



Chatting to N + D on the phone - about guitar, skipping and stuff

History quotation

"It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would
occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing
with the same set of facts."

Bill Vaughan, journalist (1915-1977)

Fear quotation

Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader/activist in Burma, whose birthday (by co-incidence) it is today:



"The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear."



courtesy of Oli Barrett's Daily Networker

Be Here Now

Be Here Now

Lawrence Ferlinghetti recalling a 60s mantra on the radio this morning

What's up, Daddy-o? - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Playing tennis with the enfants terribles - N testing out his new racket - at Waterlow Park



Home-made Father's Day card - made with 100% love and care



Taking a bunch of kids to the cinema (Odeon Muswell Hill - once truly grand Art Deco) - N (age 10)": the script wasn't good enough" (and he was right) - good viewing fun nevertheless

Starspot #523

Bill Nighy at the Cafe Mozart, Swains Lane, Highgate (9/6/07) having a quiet moment on his own reading some large tome

Also spotted a couple of weekends ago in the Mozart vicinity, arts tv presenter Waldemar Januszczek (?) who is evidently a big fan of Mozart's cream cakes

We fought the law - today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting to my little bro

Looking after my little bro's kids

Playing football with my kids at Parliament Hill - shortly after all having our first experience of being chased by the police (our crime: breaking and entering into the playground - most exhilerating, met some cool co-criminals)

Track of the Day - Block party

Writer's Block by Just Jack - performed live on Jonathan Ross Show this morning

The Streets meets Madness from Kentish Town's finest

I get this writer's block, it comes as quite a shock
And now I'm stuck between a hard place and the biggest rock

Talent to Amuse - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Getting replies from my namesakes around the world on Facebook

Chatting at the 4Talent party with the likes of Oli Barrett, Dan Jones (about Nigella), Kim Bedi, Darkus Howe, Jonathan Holmes, et Al

Some kind of vegetable wrapped in a leaf

Track of the Day - Big Head

America is not the World by Morrisey

America your head's too big,
Because America your belly's too big

Au Revoir Canada - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

View from the plane of arctic wastes of Northern Canada

Presentation of KwaD9 at Bell Media Fund iPitch by a sparky young Quebequois

Daryl Hannah looking kookie on the street in Banff

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chat with Lonelygirl15 creator Greg Goodfried

The sound of the bagpipes (across the courtyard of the Banff Springs hotel)

Chat with BBC Director General Mark Thompson over breakfast - on Celebrity Big Brother and recent Channel 4 trials "shits happens ...sometimes several times in succession"

The Big Louisey - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The aquamarine water of Lake Louise, Alberta - road trip with Matt and Mark of Marble Media

24 lengths at the end of a long day - plus a quick dip in the outside pool of Banff Springs with mountain views

A bit of Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe - memories of the premiere at the Parkway in Camden Town

Watermusic - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

An early morning swimming pool all to myself - outdoor, bath warm, with views through gently rustling trees to the Rockies, still snowy high up and along the gulleys and crevices. [Banff, Alberta]

The music of the River Bow by the rapids and beside the meadow

Close-up views of a Prairie Dog, friendly and bold as brass - while reading and lunching on a terrace above the river

Constance - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Wandering along Queen St W on the look-out for street art and hot shots

Reading Ross MacDonald's The Blue Hammer on Mike's balcony on Constance

Tallking to U after a few days (and the enfants terribles) - home is where the heart is, not where my hat is

Cycle of life - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Cycling around Toronto with Mike Stewart - 21 years since we first met in Chambery

Touching Lake Ontario (shortly after making up a mnemonic for the Great Lakes - HOMES)

Coffee and raspberry croissant and chat on a bench opposite the park on Queen St W

World of Wonder - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The sound of a (Canadian) flag flapping in the wind - Queen's Park, Toronto

PBS radio - including the BBC World Service (including a programme about the classical musicians who worked on Sgt Pepper)

Stuff around the Royal Ontario Museum (with wing by Daniel Liebskind opened two days ago) - a stuffed cheetah; an art deco floor light; a small, very well presented collection of Judaica; the new Stairs of Wonder with a display of stained small creature skeletons in jars; a young model being made up to be photographed in a new, as yet empty, Liebeskind space

Westwards Ho! - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The sight of the West Coast of Ireland (near Shannon) from 39,000 feet - en route to Toronto

The view of Newfoundland (? could have been Nova Scotia) from the air - rocks and mountains veined with radiating ice

Seeing my good old friend Mike Stewart from Chambery days for the first time in several years

Reflections on mobility

Reflections on mobility written on a blackberry at 40,000 feet...

Mobility - Immobility
Voluntary - Involuntary

MV Nomad
IV Settler
MI Refugee
II Captive

Home as a person/people not a place
Home as where the heart is
Home as wherever you lay your hat

Track of the Day

The Zombies - Time of the Season

an iPod discovery thanks to the Holmes collection

Runner up: Neil Young - Old Man (as I head over to Tir na Og (land of the Young - Canada)