Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

D's friends at his 13th birthday party

D waving on every lap and taking on his bro at the go-karting in Aylesbury

Getting drawn into Zero Dark Thirty

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading O Jerusalem at boating pond on Hampstead Heath after walking down the country lane in the late afternoon light

Getting on top of my diary

Reading Uncut and Mojo

Birthday - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Birthday trip into town for D en famille

Bumping into people at random in the city - from Amanda White to Tony Gallagher - small world

Getting a new coat from Jean-Pierre at the Savoy Tailors Guild (including laying a bit of Racine on him)

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chat about Design with Lydia and N in East Finchley

Finale of Homeland Season 2 with U

Snoozing to Flamenco Sketches

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Lunch at Rugoletta with the Enfants Terribles

Immersing myself in Arts multimedia

Rewatching Silver Linings Playbook

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Quotalicious got full pilot and target TX date

Leisurely Christmas drunkage with Fact Ent at The Orange Tree, Pimlico

Good MPC sesh with Jay

Pete - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Final journey in dear old Pete, our faithful (but no longer trusty) PT Cruiser

Chat about marraige with Noam in Holburn

Writing Xmas cards with D

Starspots #413

December

18/12/12
Gurinder Chada
Covent Garden Hotel

Starbrush:
1/12/12
Javier Bardem
Apollo, Regent St

Quentin Tarantino
Empire, Leicester Square

Starencounter:
18/12/12
Bradley Cooper
Covent Garden Hotel

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading book group book about Free Press

Gregory Porter's voice

Walking to work with N

Creative Accounting #852

David Bailey - 40 years = Dudley Moore as Arthur

Creative Accounting #355 - Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino = John Wayne + Stephen Fry

This weekend's Happiness Experiment entries

Sat 1st:

Taking Finn to see Skyfall and meet Xavier Bardem - XB's charming reply to Finn's endearing question

Frith St on Saturday afternoon with Shuckie, Liam and Oran - like a neon-lit film set outside Bar Italia (in the week I finished reading Absolute Beginners)

Vegging stretched on the front room couch

Sun 2nd:

Watching Evelyn Glennie playing at the Not So Silent Movies session around Harold Lloyd's Speedy

The canal at King's Cross with Liam from Cally Road to St Pancras Lock under winter blue skies

First proper drive for iKia

Friday's Happiness Experiment entry

23 Oct 2012

Octopussy, You Only Live Twice and Moonraker palyed by an orchestra (Philharmonia conducted by Carl Davis at the 50th anniversary Bond concert)

Finding a new modest black car

Friday lunch at La Rugoletta

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Visiting Chris W in his new pad in Maida Vale with N, sharing music along the way on the new iPhone-compatible car stereo

Reading Elizabethan love poems to help N

Using my new Mac Air

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading World War One poetry to help Alfie out with his exam - especially Dulce et Decorum Est

Talking to N about Nero

Pitching Muff March

Starspots #412

November

Starbrush:
Sam Rockwell
Martin McDonagh
Cineworld, Haymarket

Helen Mirren
James D'Arcy
Fox, Soho Square

Starencounter:
Anthony Hopkins
Fox, Soho Square

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Preraphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain - after reading William Gaunt's Preraphaelite Tragedy

Eating fallafel with N

Giving Shuckie, Liam and Oran a walking tour of Soho

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chat over lunch with Gia about apocalypse, zombies and stuff

Breakfast with Lydia after both coming from EF by coincidence - talked about creativity, design and stuff

Meeting pushing Quotalicious along

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Exodus with N on a rainy afternoon

Seeing Eileen

Going for a run after a gap of a few days

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Grand Designs in bed with D

A bath with new bath salts

Porridge with cinnamon

Yes Yes Yes

“He likes the country life.”

On the summit of Howth Head this afternoon I read the last page of Ulysses which is in my pocket (thanks to these new phones). It ends with the Yes of Molly taking Bloom’s hand in marriage. When I took Una’s hand I rejoiced in gaining four sisters. I’m down to three now and just (an hour ago) took my leave of another one – for ever.

The sea from Ben of Howth was crystalline green, a perfect palette with the blue-grey hills beyond and the grey-tinged-with-purple rain clouds. The rain had crept up behind me from the city like a dark desert storm as I drove round and up the Head but by the time I parked up it had passed over and left a fresh sheen along the track. I speculated where Molly and Bloom may have left the main path and found their private space among the rhododendrons – I came up with a convincing hypothesis overlooking the golf course. The winbushes were still tinged with a hanging-on-in-there yellow and the odd other bloom punctuated the classic Irish countryside.

“He likes the country life” she tells her two friends, both Dubs from the hospital where she worked. I left the hill with my heart soaring like the seagulls down on Howth pier, which come in for landing like a Harrier, perfect control in the strong sea breeze as they land on the concrete edge. When I got to the end of the pier I came across the plaque commemorating the landing of The Asgard. Strange to have received a Tweet recently from Erskine Childers (the great-grandson). His great-grandfather’s exploits at Howth Head fused with The Riddle of the Sands which struck a Romantic chord with me is another facet of loving this old country I married into.

Talking to her friends she returns to her old self – Feisty is the word that springs to mind, Spirited, her own self. As I look at her profile there’s something so distinctive and endearing in that lower lip, and heart-breaking. If I hadn’t ended up with Una, Bernadette always struck me as the next best thing, closest in looks, also beautiful red hair, though hers darkened over time. She’s got the same dark masculine eyebrows, even more so, which capture her strength and determination.

She’s over in Raheny now, a couple of miles down the road. I’m in her own manor, Clontarf. A couple of the longest miles ever. She’s been very patient with me over the years, way more than I’ve been. I liked just being around her. She’s a force of Yes.

Clontarf, 2^nd November 2012

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Run down by the Liffey at Clontarf with the sun just breaking through

Lunch with the Enfants Terribles at Dan's Cafe, Carlingford

Dinner at Clontarf Castle with U, Elizabeth & Deirdre

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Bat for Lashes' dancing in her black and white striped backless long dress (The Forum, Kentish Town with Farrah)

Watching Homeland on the couch with U (plot back on track in Season 2)

Chatting with Ma at the kitchen table

Creative Accounting #142

PJ Harvey + Bjork + Kate Bush + 1/2 Lisa Hannigan = Bat for Lashes

Bat for Lashes (The Forum)

The Forum, Kentish Town

New third LP and Two Suns incl.
(Crystal towers)
The Haunted Man
Rest Your Head
...
Daniel **

With Farrah

2nd
1st was Round House

Leipzig - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking to the hospital where my Dad was born in the autumnal sunshine

Drinking fresh quince tea in Leipzig airport

Reading about the Beat writers whilst listening to John Martyn - media joy

Leipzigzag - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Finishing my poem Leipzigzag started two years ago after my first trip to my father's native city and now drawn to a conclusion back here

Sitting towards the back of what used to be the Leipzig synagogue - now just 140 metal chairs on a concrete rectangle

Long chat with Irja, Berlin-based documentary-maker, about all kinds of stuff from Nazis to marriage - and Mark about his film about Veronika and Cost of Living

Bonus Happiness:
Pilgrimage to 16 Promenaden Strasse and 1 Nordplatz on behalf of Nathan und Dora Gewurtz und Else

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Lunch at Rugoletta with N - lovely chat

Taking the 1938 Leipzig map out for a second trip to the Vaterland

Helping prepare the Paralympic site for the awards season

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Grand Designs - an environmentally-friendly house in Brittany made of tyres - with U & N

Yellow autumnal sunlight in North Greenwich by Ravensbourne

Breaking in the Mac Eire at work

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The last part of A Love Supreme

Coming up with ideas for sex season - group idea generation

Walking from home to bus-stop with D

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Anniversary dinner at the Bull & Last complete with lock decor

Revisiting the Odeon Holloway Road complete with magnificent art deco atrium (for Ruby Sparkes)

Investigating the origins of a quotation

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Listening to Ray Davies talk about Fortis Green on Robert Elms - and an autistic fella talk about the beauty of numbers

Chance encounters and chats on the tube - tonight, Lisa R; yesterday, Clive S

An afternoon getting the ball rolling on new projects

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Bake-off final with U & D

Finishing On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Ian Flemming in sun-dappled Christchurch Gardens where death and equality of the sexes meet

Colouring in with D - a spiral staircase pattern

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The sound of church bells over Tottenham

Getting the Air fully up&running

Watching the greatest skyfall of all-time

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Cruising around Sunday London on buses

Reading an old Pan edition of On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Two beigels and one cheese cake from Beigel Bake, Brick Lane outdoors in the hood

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting with Dr Pixie & Dr Dawn at drinks event with fuckall food leading to arrival home drunk (which shed a new light on The Nazis: A Warning from History)

Lovely chat with Hilary P at said boozeup

Strange Korean TV women encounter in Lambeth

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Helping a filmmaker in LA making her film multiplatform

Chicken Tikka Masala with two hungry boys

Watching Bond with D

On The Road - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Catching On The Road at the Phoenix with Ritva - captures the It of the book

Taking N to his English GCSE with last minute revision in the car which is beat like the Hudson

Getting my new Remmington in the form of a MacBook Air 11" 800HP - looking forward to taking it on the road

Starspot #663

Kevin McCloud - Horseferry Road 10/10/12

Starspot #662

Colin Jackson, Horseferry Road 10/10/12

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Sitting out on the balcony in Ledbury Road

Eating fish and chips while reading the paper outdoors on Endell St

One of the best gigs of my life (and there have been many) - Van at Ronnie's 2/9/12

1 Brown Eyed Girl
2 Street?
3 Leaves are falling
4 Open your heart
5 Mystic East
6 Close to Jazz
7 (Jazz Blues and Funk)
8 Days Like This
9 Maybe Tomorrow?
10 Born to Sing
11 Enlightenment
12 All in the Game medley/Burning Ground ***
13 Walk??
14 Moondance

Very special trombonist and great tenor sax

Neil + Joan

Jamaican Martinis

The Easter pose

Patti Smith v Sitting Bull

top by Annie Liebowitz

Georgia O'Keeffe v Patti Smith

by Alfred Steiglitz & Lynn Goldsmith

Eric Gill

The Four Gospels of the Lord
Golden Cockerel
1931
With Robert Gibbings at Golden Cockerel Press
Typeface: Golden Cockerel

See Then

Pusherman

Pusherman
Pill Sugarer

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Mint tea at Yalla Yalla with U & D

Chance encounter with a chrome Bugatti Veyron

Meeting at Twitter London about Hotel GB

Saturday's Happiness Experiment entry

Listening to old 12"s including Like a Prayer (for Bronagh)

Taking Sean to Wembley to watch Sarries with N

Snoozing in the Indian summer sun (whilst reading Buchan)

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Walk through Coldfall Woods with Ja and Sean

Buying anniversary stuff for U on East Finchley high street including a ginger cake

Reading John McNab at sundown in a deckchair swathed in a leopard skin blanket

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading on the village green at Waterbeach in the autumnal sunshine

Marvellous bedroom mirror view

Chatting to N about taekwondo and the like

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Patti Smith railing against the injustices in Putin's Russia in her high energy poetic way - at the Troxy, Limehouse with Sue

The Thames at sunset from dinner at the Narrow, Limehouse

Chat on the back upper terrace in the Indian Summer sunshine with Andy Bell

Birthday Monday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Dexy's from 15' away at Cambridge Corn Exchange with U

Returning to Cambridge on an autumn day with U 26 years on, starting in the Orchard, Granchester

Revisiting Kettle's Yard with U, the spiral of grey pebbles in the white

Patti Smith at the Troxy, Limehouse 13/9/12

1 Dancing barefoot
2 Redondo Beach
3 (Come) Bangra
4 (something) for you
5 Ghost dance
6 Southern Cross*
7 This? Girl
8 Pissing in the River **
9 Because the Night
10 Jesus died for somebody's sins - Gloria
___
11 People have the Power
12 Rock'n'roll Nigger

Patti Smith
Lenny Kaye
Jackson Smith

With Sue Millard

Prayer, churches and the Pussycat Dolls

Bangra tour

"Thanks, I had a great time"

Dexy's at the Corn Exchange, Cambridge 11/9/12

Some Day I'm Going to Soar
__

1 (just only)
2 Greenlight *
3 Fire
4 Come On Eileen
5 What's She Like?

Mick Talbot's birthday and mine
Soar band

With Una

Soar Tour - first night

Indian Summer - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading and watching rugby from my new picnic blanket - in Radlett (Tabards RFC) under a bright blue country sky

Reading John McNab on my old picnic blanket in the back garden

Sunday night cinema with U (Lawless)

Parade's End - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing David Weir beside St James's Park and trying to keep up with him to take a photo

Catching sight of Jess Ennis and Anthony Joshua among an unexpected stream of GB Olympians and Paralympians

Photographing fellow Gamesmakers in the special area they set aside for us at the top of the Mall for the Athletes' Parade

Indian Summer - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Perfect Indian Summer weather strong sun with a cool breeze

Sundown walk with D through Coldfall Woods with a magical low evening light (following a lovely Rugoletta lunch with him)

Reading Toby's Room in my deckchair at lunchbreak from Paralympics site

The Best Games Ever - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The penultimate night of Athletics in the London 2012 Olympic Stadium including:
* Jason Smyth winning his second Gold for Ireland in the 200m
* Oskar Pistorius running an elegant 400m heat
* A Canadian visually impaired 5000m runner waving heart-warmingly from the podium [he just walked past the train queue just now as I'm writing and got a big cheer]
* The Angolan, French and Brazilian pairs of visually impaired and sighted runners jumping and dancing on the podium together

A spontaneous gathering of singalong Parklife on the way out

Policemen doing the lightening bolt, soldiers being congratulated and Gamesmakers joshing through loudspeakers on the way out to round off the friendliest and best Olympic and Paralympic Games of all time

Berlin - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Exploring Daniel Libeskind's conceptual Jewish Museum building on Jason's recommendation

Being chauffeur driven and practising mein Deutsch ein bisschen in the car, thinking about Der Hauptmann von Kopenick

Doing a keynote in a 70s building about multiplatform storytelling

Berlin: Symphony of a City - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Catching up with Jule Ebert over a bratwurst and beer

Catching up with Sean de Burca on a leafy corner prior to a wander around Berlin Mitte

Immersing myself in the Memorial to Europe's Murdered Jews at twilight

1938

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Creative Accounting #451

Berlin = city of architecture

Berlin

Emigration prohibited Oct 41
276k escaped by then
200k GerJews murdered

Schalechet = Fallen Leaves = Gefallenes Laub

Mantras

I will enjoy my day

? Service and compassion through Family and Friendship

Olympic last blast - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Darragh McDonald storm to victory for Ireland and Ellie Simmonds edge it for Team GB at the Paralympics swimming with U N D

My last view of the Olympic Stadium in action complemented by the Orbit

Looking at the flowers at the Olympic Park with U

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Floating in the sea at Es Dolc at sundown

Reading On the Road most of the day, on the beach and at our pad

Late night swim with D

Creative Accounting #312

Kimbra / New Zealand = Camille / France

Majorca with the Enfants Terribles Part 2 of 2

Thurs 23 Aug:

Ses Salines beach

Fri 24:
Cuevas del Drach (Porto Cristo)
Colonia de Sant Pere
Alcudia (beach, towards Punta Sabate)

Sat 25:
Es Dolc beach

Sun 26:
Colonia de Sant Jordi - Palma - London Luton

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The caves at Drach near Porto Christi - being rowed along the underground lake, everywhere where the water reflected

Listening to a guitarman in the lobby after dinner with On the Road at hand

Breasts of all shapes and sizes

Colonia - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Picking up On The Road again and digging it

The salt pools at sundown, complete with ducks and other birds

Speaking with U, Bernadette and Elizabeth by Skype on the Emerald Isle

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The leaf-shaded main street of Esporles, my favourite town on Majorca, where we had a serene lunch

A rincon cafe under a plane tree and a fig tree at Soller

The autumnal roads along the west coast of Majorca, with browning leaves and filtered sunlight

Majorca with the Enfants Terribles Part 1

Saturday 18th August:
London Luton - Palma Majorca
Palma - Colonia de Sant Jordi

Sunday 19:
Ses Salines beach

Mon 20:
Palma

Tues 21:
El Donc beach

Wed:
Sant Elm
Esporles*
Deia - Robert Graves' house
Soller
El Trenc beach

...Part 2

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Laughing with D about EArs (outside the Hard Rock Cafe, Palma - the first time I've been in one since I was his age, in London, where it was founded in 1971 - our neck of the woods represented by Dave Davies guitar)

The beautiful, hidden courtyards of Palma

Sunset run and swim combo

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading John Buchan (The Power-house) on the beach at Colonia de Sant Jordi in the late afternoon light after spotting fish with D

24 swift lanes in the pool at sundown followed by more Power-house

Listening carefully to One Day I'm Going to Soar and relishing the prospect of seeing Dexys again on Sept 11

Creative Accounting #236

Gotye = Peter Gabriel + Crowded House

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting with the Enfants Terribles beside the pool at night over cocktails

Reading the last ever issue of The Word

Seeing Majorca from the air, the Mediterranean browns

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chat on the back terrace of Horseferry with Hannah Girasol

Evening walk through Kenwood with U

Writing copy for the Channel 4 Paralympics website

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Listening to John Coltrane through our new computer speakers, with the lovely acoustics of the corner

Brainstorming in a logical way around Skype-type programming, chatting through ideas with Noora

Jogging along with Inheritance Tracks

Creative Accounting #255

Wilko Johnson / Essex = David Byrne / NYC

Friday's Happiness Experiment entry

Getting Jesse Owens onto the homepage of the London 2012 website on the anniversary of his first gold medal win at Berlin 1936

Taking out Nat Gee's Olympia books from Berlin 1936 and finding an inscription from Else Gewurtz

Working on the Sports team and improving the photographs

Super Saturday - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Collecting my Stella McCartney Team GB top from the High St and associated Saturday morning mooching

The sight of Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah switching on the after-burners at the end of their races (800m and 10,000m)

Wandering to the corner of the Olympic Park behind the Stadium beside the river

Golden Olympics Day: Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry (Thurs)

Seeing a Canadian female athlete up-close in front of me in the court-side seats at thrilling Brasil v Russia basketball won in last 2 seconds

The journey home walking through the Olympic Park at dusk, then cycling along the River Lea canal

Getting totally absorbed in my London2012.com work - in the social media team as the pace of the action hots up

Creative Accounting No. 411

Bane = Churchill + Kendo Nagasaki

[The Dark Knight Rises]

Update 4/8/12:

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Helen&Heather winning Britain's first Gold in style

The red square, blue circle and yellow triangle questionnaire by Kandinsky at the Bauhaus - guided tour of Bauhaus: Art of Life exhibition

Cat woman's bum on Batman's motorbike (and her teary eyes) as played by Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises at the Odeon Leicester Square

Creativity quote

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.

Steve Jobs

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

End of summer's day yellow light

Writing the Commissioner's Q&A piece for Broadcast

A lively Features routine with Jay

Olympia - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The Moment in the Olympic Opening Ceremony - among the first to enjoy it at the technical dress rehearsal

Reading about Olympia (Victorine Meurent) in a novel whose name I can't recall by a woman whose name I can't recall

John Martyn's voice

Paris - This weekend's Happiness Experiment entries

Saturday

Lunch outdoors on a corner of Rue Vielle du Temple 3e in the Marais

Reading, photographing and snoozing (D) in the park behind the Musee Picasso

Seeing M Le President cruise by in advance of the 'Blue Arrows' at the Bastille Day parade

Sunday

Seeing Dejeuner sur l'Herbe with D

Walking along the Canal St Martin in pace with the Mathilda through locks and turning bridges

Laughing with D at the Gare du Nord

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

Spotting the French 'blue arrows' by mistake above the Musee d'Orsay - part of the Bastille Day celebrations

Chatting with strangers at Chartier's over dinner

The Eiffel Tower at night in the rain from Trocadero

Oblique

You get at the true meaning of things sideways.

— Alexei Sayle in 2010

Talking about Elvis Costello/Clive Langer/Robert Wyatt's Shipbuilding. A key to great art and writing, and an explanation why most of the bad stuff is bad.

Marc Almond - Empire, Shepherds Bush 9/7/12

With Peter Curran

1 The Stars We Are
2 (Dreams)
3 (Redeemed through Beauty)
4 (Out of my window)
5 Bed
6 Waifs & Strays
7 (Singing Sea)
8 Sandboy
9 My Nijinski
10 Always
***
Northern Soul selection
11 After Laughter Comes Tears *
12 Tainted Love
13 (What I Do what I say)
***
14 Jackie
15 Marc Bolan song

4th MA gig
Supporting Siouxsie and Cure at Hammy Odeon
Victoria Palace - The Stars We Are
Union Chapel - after accident
(Belfast International airport)

Female sax, trumpet, trombone and two singers
Birthday gig

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The bed in the Malmaison Birmingham

N winning the Media Prize at school outright, plus being nominated for Science

Paloma T coming round for supper as her sojourn in London approaches its end

Tuesday 3rd July

The last show of Embarrassing Bodies Live from the Clinic Series 2 - on set at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham with Dr Dawn and Dr Christian

Catch up with Nigel G at Live from the Clinic wrap party

Talking Big Art Mob with Alfie - and him taking on D as a mentor

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Summer party on a roof near Old St courtesy of Paul Bennun and Somethin' Else - where I just missed an encounter with Tom Robinson (first gig, age 15)

Gathering of the London 2012 Olympics web team with Alex Balfour, Deborah Elstein and co. - where I just missed a chance encounter with daughter of Joanathan Holmes

Lively chat over lunch with Damian K

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Winding the clock in the Caledonian Market Clock Tower with Alfie, U, D, Bernard and co.

Chatting with Ja in his back garden

Watching D swim the crawl

Saturday:

Having a haircut with Chris

Wandering around Covent Garden/Seven Dials in the afternoon sun

Watching David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust on BBC4, in particular Mike Garson demoing his piano playing

Picasso and Modern British Art

Girl in a Chemise (c05)
Wonderful austerity

#Duncan Grant

(1907 Les Demoiselles d'Avignon)

#Wydham Lewis

(1914 Vorticism) energising cubism

# Ben Nicholson

Son of William N

BN - 1933 coin and musical instruments (33)

Incised white lines, Pic-like curves, tight brown-grey palette

* BN - 1933 st remy (33)
Interlinked profiles, wide-eyed looks

1901 paintings Impressionist style

Nude Woman in a red armchair (32)
Voluptuous, erotic
Naïve
Marie-Therese Walter

Seated Woman in a Chemise (23)
Sculptural cf Moore
Cf Girl in a Chemise (c05) Stoney austerity

Nude Green Leaves & Bust (32)
MTW sensuality/eroticism
Bold curves

#Moore

Moore sketchbooks
"Biomorphic" natural forms

* HM Composition (32) African wonderstone

* HM Reclining Figure (36) elmwood

Cf BN - 1933 st remy (33) eye
Exquisite material
Cf Pic La Source (21) Classical sulptural painting

Multipart figures - Pic in Bataille's Documents mag
Cf Bacon

#Bacon

The two standout artists of C20
Pic (Dinard paintings @ Paul Rosenberg's gallery Paris inspired FB to start)

Bathers at the Beach Hut (29) Dinard
Clear link to FB's triptyches
Also Epstein Rock Drill as prescursor

(1925 3 Dancers)

FB Crucifixion (33) oil
Ribs - Rock Drill

FB Head (47-8) oil
Ape mouth/teeth

*FB 3 Studies for figures at base of Crucifixion (44)
Sculpture stands as in Pic studio pics
Alien
Chicken
Ape mouth
Dog

Composition Study 5: sketch for guernica (37)
Fascinating evolution

Study for the horses head 2 (37) pencil
Cone tongue
* Cf Moore 3 points (39/40) bronze
Immense tension
Cf Guernica

#Sutherland

Visited Grimaldi in 47

Cf Nash (Gorse on sea wall 39)
Cf Bacon (Green Tree Form 40)

* GS The Deposition (46) Fitzwilliam

Christ's face cf La Source (21) black drawing
Cf Bacon 3 Studies for figures at base of Crucifixion

* GS Crucifixion (46)
Mouth cf Bacons ape mouth

GS Homage to Pic. (47)
Impressed particularly by Joie de Vivre

ICAs 2nd exhib '40,000 yrs of Modern Art'

Women of Algiers (55) After Delacroix - Femmes d'Alger (1834)

#Hockney

DH the student homage to Pic (73) print - Turners'

Polaroid cubism
Eg
DH Still life with blue guitar (82)

The 3 Dancers (25)
Chaim Potok Asher Lev
Cf Matisse
Cf Bacon

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

A tour around the nearly finished London 2012 Olympic Press Centre

Teaching D fractions

Reading Absolute Beginners

Wednesday and Thursday's Happiness Experiment entries

Wed 20 June

Picking up Best Website at the Broadcast Digital Awards for Sexperience (often the bridesmaid, now the bride)

Getting the hattrick - winning Best Multiplatform for third year running - for Live from the Clinic, with the headmaster from The Inbetweeners giving out the prizes

Watching The Secret Millionaire with Tommy Boy

Thurs 21

Introducing the charming writer Deborah Moggach at my mum's charity lunch

Visiting my dad's grave (in a conciliatory context)

Chatting to U before and after A Love Supreme (at Kings College Chapel) in Somerset House

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Sunset walk through Coldfall Woods with U

Watching The Lady (with U) while she's in the country

Lunch with Helen V and the Outline crew in Kentish Town

Creative Accounting #551

Rodriguez = Richie Haven + Nick Drake

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chairing the Big Hunt, Little Hunt session at Docfest/Fuel4 event with Jean Baptiste Dumont as a special guest

Being introduced as "the Godfather of Multiplatform" (Louise B)

Gregory Porter

Sugar Man - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching In Search of the Sugar Man then spotting Rodriguez through the side of stage door before seeing him play

Lovely compliments from R Graef, H Croall and D Glover - probably all drunk

Hanging out with Molly M at Docfest (named after Molly Bloom)

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Using the Kodiak with N (director) and D (actor)

An early evening Phoenix - Moonrise Kingdom - which grew on me thanks to the two young leads

Sorting through my Diamond Jubilee photos

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking to & from summer evening's dinner at La Rugoletta with N & D

Dreaming about HP

Watching Animal House with the Enfants Terribles

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Trying to keep a dream about Curiosity and Love going

Collecting my gear for Olympics volunteering from the depths of East London, including the Adidas shoes 1.5 sizes out

Bringing the tone down in the Groucho with shorts and sandals

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking down to the cinema after work to watch The Dictator, crescendoing in the Democracy speech

Watching rushes from the Values video

Walking between busstops with D

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Ep 1of Live from the Clinic Series 2 go out with the chat flying, having fed back on Ep 0 early morning

Reading Lord of the Flies to catch N up

Getting The Big Share TV under way

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Great numbers on TV, online and mobile for Live from the Clinic 2 plus recognition as digital innovation at its best

Listening, for the first time for ages, to White Man in Hammersmith Palais

Watching Where's Gary?

East is East - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Joining the dots across the East End with Stiks

Chopped herring beigel from Brick Lane (and cheese cake)

Pottering in Rough Trade

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Kevin Rowland performing his new record at the Empire Shepherds Bush (with Mick Talbot - born on 9/11) - the sequence of love songs in the middle with Madeleine (especially before we see her for real)

Meeting the fella from Three Hungry Boys and his business partner about Plan B - quite some energy

Strong setting sun in my eyes walking along Shepherds Bush Green (after so much rain and cloud)

Starspot #921

Mark Lamarr - outside Empire, Shepherds Bush after Dexys gig
8/5/12

Dexys - Empire, Shepherds Bush 8/5/12

The whole of the new LP, One Day I'm Going to Soar:
Now
Lost
Me
She Got a Wiggle ***
You
Thinking of You
I'm Always Going to Love You
Incapable of Love
Nowhere is Home
Free
It's OK John Joe **

***

Some favourites involving an investigating police officer, concluding with Come On Eileen
incl Tell Me When My Light Turns Green *

***

Someone(?)
Liars A to E
What's She Like?

Kevin Rowland
Mick Talbot (b. 11th Sept)
Pete Williams
Big Jim Paterson
Madeleine Hyland
Lucy Morgan (fiddle)
Dave Ruffy (drums)
Tim Cansfield (guitar)

Leuven - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Osama Bin Laden sleeps with the fishes

The waft as flowersmell as I jogged into the Botanical Garden, Leuven

Where's Gary?

Leuven - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Steack frites for Sunday lunch

Drinking Belgian cherry beer and reading (Death in the Family) in the hot emerging afternoon sun

Reading Uncut about Dexy's, PiL, etc. in the late afternoon sun on the old market place, Leuven

Rain - Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Writing about Kevin Macdonald's Marley doc (Marley's Ghost)

Saturday afternoon snooze with the rain pattering on the skylight

Watching a movie with U & D (Three & Out, shot around East Finchley)

Creative Accounting #412

Velvet Goldmine = Citizen Kane + Stardust

Happiness Experiment entry 24/4/12

Getting tickets from Kevin Macdonald to see his Marley doc at the Tricycle in good old Buckley Road

My Beautiful Funeral session with Livity

Meeting with Des and Leslie about Wasted

Happiness Experiment entry 23/4/12

Lunching with Lloyd Newson of DV8, discussing Can We Talk About This?

Getting involved in Robert Peston's Speakers for Schools

The stars of learning support poster at Compton

Creative Accounting #523

The Artist + Hugo + Travelling Light + Singing in the Rain / London = focus on birth of cinema /2011-12

Creative Accounting #522

Singing in the Rain / 50s = Walking on the Moon / 70s

Corporate Missions

GSK 4/12:

We exist to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.

Silence is a Rhythm too

Life = A Symphony, made up of rhythms and punctuated with sounds

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

She Stoops to Conquer at the Olivier spearheaded by the East Finchley posse of Sophie Thompson and Steve Pemberton
Supper with D in local caff
Browsing Flickr

Creative Accounting #145

She Stoops to Conquer (Goldsmith) = Tom Jones (Fielding) + The Rake's Progress (Hogarth)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Audrey Tautou in Delicatesse at the Phoenix
Reading What's Mine is Yours with a fresh coffee and croissant in an empty tube carriage
Chatting with Noora about San Francisco and marriage

Creative Accounting #553

Jonathan Rhys Meyers / Cork + cheekbones = Cillian Murphy / Cork + CHEEKBONES

Creative Accounting #552

Misterman = Garage + Psycho + Groundhog Day

This weekend's Happiness Experiment entry

Sat:
N's American Football style run
Reading The Word
The art deco Riviera Hotel, Weymouth

Sun:
Having Weymouth beach all to myself (7am)
Reading On the Road lying at the edge of a rugby field
The line of trees following the curve of the hill above Weymouth RFC

Starspots #128

Gary Kemp
Trevor Bolder (Spider from Mars)
Charles Shaar Murray
Heddon St W1

Wednesday's Happiness Experiment entry

Family end-of-hols dinner at Cafe Rouge, Highgate with Meabh and Alfie as guests

Starting On the Road - Jack Kerouac

Reading Esquire at the hairdresser

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Magic show with D, his first - Pete Firman - chat with Anthony Owen

Walking around with a good Cypriot tan

Congratulations around work for Emmy

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Breakfasting with the Enfants Terribles

Having Meabh around the house

Cracking through a load of work

Mayorships

Jazz Cafe
Wingate & Finchley FC
BBC Radio Theatre
The Walks
East Finchley Constitutional Club
Eva's Polish Deli
Edgware Academy
Edgware Library
Dept of Energy & Climate Change
West Breakwater, Brighton Marina
Camden Town Brewery
Casa Pepe, East Finchley
Camden Tattoo & Piercing
Gate 24a
AGC Equity Partners
Louis Patiserie, Hampstead
East Finchley Supermarket
Jamie's Italian
Alec Tiranti

MORE Mayorships

Recent Happiness Experiment entries

Sun 8th Apr:
Veging out behind a laurel-like bush

Reading two books set in Cyprus - Bitter Lemons (Laurence Durrell) and Judas Country (Gavin Kyle)

Snorkelling with U - tracked down the yellow fish

Mon 9th:

Lunch a deux with U on a terrace by the sea under the raspberry-type trees

Exploring the Tombs of the Kings archaeological site a quartre in the late afternoon sun

Greek coffee and baklava to round off the jovial last supper in Paphos port

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Playing table-tennis and full size tennis with N, the latter at sundown

Snorkelling with N, close-up with some shiny white fish

Reading Laurence Durrell's Bitter Lemons about Cyprus

Phrases I like

The hard of thinking
quite a gifted layabout

Good Thursday and Friday - recent Happiness Experiment entries

Thurs 5th April:
Magic show by D in ancient amphitheatre in Paphos archaeological area behind the harbour

Hovering over a yellow rainbow fish trying out D's goggles and snorkel

The mosaic of the four seasons at House of Dionysis, Paphos

Good Friday 6th April:
Beating the Turkish Cypriot shesh besh lovers at backgammon in Turkish Nicosia

DJing my way along the Limasol-Paphos highway past the Rock of Aphrodite (her birthplace) at sunset to the likes of She's Not There (Santana) as well as Jimi Hendrix, Massive Attack, The Cure and Joy Division (Mykonos-style sundowner vibes)

Jogging down to the headland just after sunset to Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed

Sunshine following me (Cannes and Paphos) - Recent Happiness Experiment entries

Sunday 1st April:
Being loomed over by Miss World (formerly Miss Venezuela)

Picking up the Non-Fiction International Digital Emmy with the Live from the Clinic team

Drawing the scene from the space between the Musee Picasso, Antibes and the palm sunday church with the spirit of Joie de Vivre (1946) which is the jewel in the crown of the former

Monday 2nd:
Breakfast on the terrace of the Carlton, near the Dog Bar which typifies its Englishness

A flood of lovely messages via Facebook about the Emmy win

Securing some JC space for mothernachus

Tuesday 3rd:
Lively family chat over breakfast in the airport on the way to Cyprus - topics included burning issues of the day like Blazing Saddles

Arriving in Cyprus for the first time - shades of the Old Country

Enjoying the quiet of a lawn by the sea, out back of the hotel, very tranquil

Wed 4th:
Finishing a book worthy of the Shelf of Honour: Nemesis by Philip Roth, moving, tragic and insightful I masterful

A chilled out dinner by the harbour in Pathos en famille en plein air involving tahini and other Mediterranean fare

First sea swim of the year with D - including finding two Euro coins N needed for his collection in the shallows

Words I like

Blacktop (US) - paved road
Deadly (Ire, Dublin)
Hilarious

Carrying the Cannes - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The aircraft carrier in front of the Carlton

Getting drunk on cherries at the Majestic at the MIPcube lunch

Watching youngens doing parcours and streetstuff on the beach with Yifat

Starspot #399

Chris Evans 29/3/12 HFR

Cannes Do - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Delivering keynote at MIPDoc on pushing the boundaries of multiplatform

Jogging to the marina at the east end of the Croisette at Cannes early this morning

Reading Philip Roth's Nemesis on the plage Carlton in the late afternoon beside a woman with a New York/Noo Joisey accent

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

My generously proportioned hotel room at the Carlton, Cannes - my first stay here since the Melrose years c1996 with MindGym

Dinner with Anna Higgs of Film4 at Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food at LHR T5

Talking about NEDs in Old Queen St

Starspots special #14: Starmeets

26/3/12
Ian Hislop (and wife)
Outside the National Theatre
First time since Not Forgotten launch at Imperial War Museum in 2008

27/3/12
Gary Kemp
In Heddon Street where Ziggy Stardust was born

Starspots #67

Jon Snow
Outside The Guardian, York Way
24/3/12 on the way home from Olympic volunteer training

Henri Cartier-Bresson

"There is nothing in the world that does not have a decisive moment"

(on Behind the Gare St Lazare 1932)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Having cleaned up the ground behind the Mond Monument

Watching a war movie with U & N (Spike Lee's Miracle of St Anna)

A bitter shandy in one of those old dimpled pint glasses (sharing a little with N) - The Adam & Eve, Mill Hill Ridgeway

Joan Baez (Festival Hall) 17/3/12

1 God on our Side
2 Swing Low Sweet Chariot
3 Joe Hill
4 House of the Rising Sun
5 Suzanne
6 Diamonds & Rust

7 Blowin' in the Wind
8 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
9 Imagine

with Una

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Rob Kearney and the Irish team play in the 6 Nations Rugby against Scotland

Reading 'Six Days' in the back garden sunshine

Having a Saturday afternoon wander down the High Street

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Women's 3m Springboard diving at the 2012 Olympic Aquatics Centre

Morning run in the sun

Watching Homeland on Channel 4

Life Drawing - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Last life drawing class of the season (Zoe 2)

Drink of Symonds cider after with Andy, Zoe and co. To celebrate Steve's birthday

Reading Tomorrow over vegetable gyoza soup

Words I Hate

Killing Time
Maggot
Bloods

Creative Accounting #617

Little White Lies (Les Petits Mouchoirs) / French = The Big Chill / American

with Liam Neeson (Gilles Lellouche), Dustin Hoffman (Francois Cluzet), Sean Penn (Benoit Magimel) look-a-likes
Ludo = Alex, Marie = Chloe, Max = Harold, etc.

Creative Accounting #616

Homeland = The Manchurian Candidate + 24