Track of the Day

After the Love has gone - Earth Wind and Fire (on Italian radio in a Florentine taxi)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Jogging along the Arno in the sunshine

Reading Michael Chabon (Yiddish Policemen's Union) in the Giardino di Boboli

The view across Firenze

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Talking 4IP in the Old Laundry, Marylebone

Having a late night drink in T-shirt at an Irish pub in Florence with Steve Moore, Tony Apollo et al

The excitement of travel - in this case to Florence with U

Going with the Flo - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

A long, slow Italian lunch hosted by James Bradburne, director of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence

Getting a positive reaction to Lost & Found, including buy-in from Palazzo Strozzi (an international dimension)

Walking a deux to&from dinner at Caffe Cibreo, Florence

Whole Nut

N was telling me about the teachers' strike at his school yesterday, explaining how come they got so much free play: "Most of our teachers belong to the Nut union"

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Dexy's Midnight Runners (Dance Stance) walking home at twilight

Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union on the tube home

Successfully casting Searching doc - all systems go

The Shelf of Honour

Ulysses - James Joyce
Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Charles Dickens
Kalooki Nights - Howard Jacobson
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Wanderers - Richard Price
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

Bye to Brighton - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Having the whole of the Volks Electric Railway to ourselves (me and the Enfants Terribles) - from Blackrock to Brighton Aquarium

Buying books at Sussex Stationers with the Enfants Terribles

Reframing the Roy Lichstenstein poster (prop from Live & Learn) for the children's bedroom in Mariners

Starspots #44

17.iv.08
Donal McIntyre (TV journo)
Jon Plowman (BBC comedy producer)
Canada House, Banff TV festival reception

Track of the Day

The Great Curve by Talking Heads from Remain in the Light

Rocky 1 - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

My first visit to Canada House/Maison du Canada, Trafalgar Square - for announcement of nominations for Banff World TV Festival Awards aka The Rockies - Big Art Mob was nominated

Walking along the meandering, reed-lined River Arun into Arundel under an azure sky

Walking through St James's in the evening sun

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The sound of rigging against masts in the wind (echoes of Lac du Bourget with Marco and Cherry) - after reading on West Pier beach

Fresh sardines and fish soup from Jack Mill's place on the Brighton beachfront

N saying he would not feel right or be able to hit/hurt anyone - a good soul

Golden sea - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The tame and wild gardens at Bateman's, Rudyard Kipling's house in Burwash, East Sussex

Walking along Brighton beach from the Marina to the Pier at sunset en famille

Jogging along the harbour wall at Brighton Marina looking at the golden sea (listening to some eggheads talking about Greek mythology on a Radio 4 podcast)

Creative Accounting #554

The Greek Myths = The Jazz of Storytelling

Been listening to an excellent In Our Time (Radio 4 podcast) on these myths

Creative Accounting #553

The Island = Logan's Run + AI?

Track of the Day (belated)

Thou Shalt Always Kill - Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip - as performed live at the Media Guardian Innovation Awards a few weeks ago, and as first heard in Rough Trade in Brick Lane on an afternoon out with the Enfants Terribles

"The Clash - just a band"

Nature boy - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Springtime view over the allotments - backdrop with azure sky to street trees in blossom

Listening to 45s - as I convert them to MP3s on my new dancette

Hailstone storm out of nowhere

4mations test

On Pantheism

"Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an
insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to
discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with
the same care and imagination as a zebra. Apparently it does not occur to
nature whether or not a creature is within our range of vision, and the
suspicion arises that even the zebra was not designed for our benefit."

Rudolf Arnheim (psychologist and author 1904-2007)

Skinful - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Raspberry daquiris - with Alfie before BAFTA Nominees party



Micro-blogging from a live event - the launch of the Public Service Broadcasting Review (2) transmitted via Twitter



Hooking up with Chloe Moss and the Skins crew (Maxie, Jal et al knocking around)

The Club

Me

John Martyn

Mick Talbot (Style Council/Young Disciples)

New York Fire Dept.

Herbert Lom

DH Lawrence

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

U getting a special new job at the BBC - family celebration at the Rouge in Highgate

Lunchtime reading in the sun (The Three Hostages)

A steady, chilled day of work

Track of the Day

Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield

Creative Accounting #27

Dave Gorman = Ewen Bremner + sideburns

I notice me and Dave have a love of Reasons to be Cheerful in common

First met Ewen back in Melrose days when he was playing a retarded youth in a John Mole drama opposite Ursula Jones - many years before I first entered the Choose Life doors of Channel 4's Glasgow office.

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Lunch with the charming and eclectic John Newbigin

Hampstead Garden Suburb and Temple Fortune (with U)

Asking a difficult question boldly

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking home at dusk

The Thames (on my way to Ofcom)

Thinking about learning (at a Niace independent commission on lifelong learning and new technologies)

Notes: The Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley

Became Phoenix in 1975 when bought by Contemporary Films (owned Phoenix in Jericho, Oxford too)
Was Rex til then
Was The Picture House 1910-1930

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Having a massage

Late afternoon on a sunny day

Having a haircut

Track of the Day

She is So Beautiful - Mike Scott - from Bring 'Em All In

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Looking at naked breasts (for purely professional purposes - forthcoming Channel 4 series)

Playing with Twitter (still think it's the Tower of Babel)

The red E-type Jag in Smith Square

on Politics

"The politics of youth are, by definition, the politics of ignorance."
Howard Jacobson - If you say you want a revolution...

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Birdsong at night

Scent of flowers

Going out for a coffee

Starspot #331

Lenny Henry (today, Channel 4)

On Documentary

"If Documentary is just about fact, you may as well get the police to take down witness statements."



Lee Kern

on The Edgware Walker

www.twinklebum.co.uk