Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Ma's reaction to her 75th birthday present - cut pearl earrings - she'd unusually left her earrings off by mistake coming to her party in Chandler's Cross, Herts. (The Grove) where the England football team's coach was in the car park, so Harry Kane was in the building somewhere

Sunday breakfast out (Golder's Green) with The Week

D discovering old school hiphop

Creative Accounting #764

Graham Parker = Elvis Costello + Bruce Springsteen

eg White Honey

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Lunch with Jack Hazan at El Parador

Reading An Inspector Calls in the garden late on a sunny spring afternoon - and discussing it with D after

Tidying up my bookshelves and making space

Yesterday's HEE

Lunch at Amici with newspaper and amara drink

Watching Chappie with U to mark St Patrick's Day

Clearing my head with a run

Creative Accounting #763

Nick Hornby is to England what Roddy Doyle is to Ireland

Creative Accounting #762

Chappie = Robocop + Frankenstein + Star Wars plus

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking to and laughing over dinner with the Enfants Terribles at Nahling

Coffee & chat with Martin Bright at Amici including tales of the Mitfords

Watching the beginning of Apocalypse Now with N

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Up on the Roof - a return visit to Beautiful with N

Getting a vinyl copy of A Love Supreme at Honest Jon's in Portobello Road

Reading a mystery (The Cambridge Theorem) by the Grand Union Canal in Kensal Green

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Driving beside a silver-grey Aston Martin DB6 at the foot of Highgate Hill northside

Sunset jog in St Pancras & Islington

Talking photography with D - got each of us three a new SD card for the G1

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Music and other chat with Des Shaw at The Vine

Mayo & Kermode podcast while jogging in St Pancras & Islington

Listening to In A Silent Way

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment Entry

Protesting outside the Town Hall to save our library

Meeting with Rick Edwards about election/politics - he sent a message of support during the protest

Book group at Paul's - The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Today's Happiness Experiment Entry

The positive reaction to my unplanned talk on Don't Stop the Music at TV or Not TV at Somerset House

Reading about A Love Supreme in the sunshine

Listening to John Coltrane

A Love Supreme

recorded 9 Dec 1964 - Feb 65 released
New Jersey

• Elvin Jones
• Jimmy Garrison
• McCoy Tyner

the vocal chant "A Love Supreme", sung by Coltrane (accompanying himself via overdubs)
An alternative version of "Acknowledgement" was recorded the next day on December 10. This version, which included tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp and bassist Art Davis, did not feature Coltrane chanting "a love supreme" 
The only live performance of the "Love Supreme" suite was on July 26, 1965 at the Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, France

Played at Gaumont State, Kilburn - Coltrane played there in 1961

1964-04-27, 1964-06-01 recorded Crescent  (1964)

1965-02-18, 1965-05-17 recorded The John Coltrane Quartet Plays  live (1965)

1965-05-26, 1965-06-10 recorded Transition (1970)
1965-06-10, 1965-06-16, 1965-10-14 recorded Kulu Sé Mama (1967)

KIND OF BLUE

recorded New York City on March 2 and April 22, 1959 ("All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches") - released on August 17, 1959

• 1 Miles Davis – trumpet (band leader)
• 2 Julian "Cannonball" Adderley – alto saxophone, except on "Blue in Green"
• 3 John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
• 4 Bill Evans – piano (except "Freddie Freeloader")
• Wynton Kelly – piano on "Freddie Freeloader"
• 5 Paul Chambers – double bass
• 6 Jimmy Cobb – drums

Davis had only given the band sketches of scales and melody lines on which to improvise -  Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece

many scholars and fans believe that Bill Evans wrote part or the whole of "Blue in Green" and "Flamenco Sketches"

Producer Quincy Jones, one of Davis' longtime friends, wrote: "That [Kind of Blue] will always be my music, man. I play Kind of Blue every day—it's my orange juice."

Evans and Chambers played on the sessions for The Blues and the Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson in 1961

Milestones - Recorded: April 2, 1958 – April 3, 1958
1958 Miles - Recorded: May 26, 1958
*
Someday my prince - Recorded: March 7, 1961 – March 21, 1961

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b051s0fp

A Love Supreme: 50 Years On

Today's Happiness Experiment entry - Beautiful

Up on the Roof and Natural Woman in Beautiful (Carole King musical) with Ma

Reading about A Love Supreme (while listening to it) Ashley Kahn book

Signing off 3 eps of 24 Hour Party Politics

Today's Happiness Experiment entry - Woods & Zombies

Buying a gig ticket for Enfant Terrible No. 2 (Flatbush Zombies) - he's so excited, planning his trip to Brixton weeks in advance

A lunchtime chat with an Australian and an American colleague (followed by a short burst of book reading, Into The Woods)

The late afternoon sun as I worked up on the top floor of C4

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching a young England rugby team beat Wales at the Millennium Stadium, in particular Jonathan Joseph's masterful try

Reading Breaking the Code in the sunlit back garden

Watching the film BAFTAs with the Enfants Terribles (after a roast beef dinner together)

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The text from N telling me Spurs had beaten Arsenal thanks to two goals from Harry Kane

A shower in the coloured dot shower

Breakfast with Eileen and Matthew at Joan's

Un Moment

Yesterday I had the satisfaction of knowing a French phrase that the two Francophones at the table did not know: Un ciel maquereau

= mackeral sky

= altocumulus undulatus

Coming to terms with the Human Condition

The essence of a conversation in the car this morning with Enfant Terrible No. 1 which started from talking about a young woman (26) who has recently lost her father to whom she was very close.

To come to terms with our mortality - which could be called Wisdom - we need to do two things, from my experience:

(1) live in the present - as opposed to religion which usually tries to convince us that there is a future beyond death (meditation is one way to regularly drag yourself back to the present) - this is the best way to make use of the limited time you do have, appreciating and using every moment (which does not mean you need to be constantly active/productive)

(2) decide what you want to do with your time - will you use it for yourself or others? ultimately it is most satisfying to do the latter.

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Some flakes of snow outside La Rugoletta with Marco & Clemence, N & D

Kick-off meeting for Just Cos with Kell & Dan

Drinking Madeira wine with Marco