Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Embarrassing Bodies passing 20 million pageviews

Surgery Live entering the public domain - Twitter site launched

The short, wonderous life of Oscar Wao book group sesh at JRT's

Athens arrival - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading the paper over breakfast

A swim on the roof top pool overlooking Athens

A first view of the Acropolis

Athens - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Delivering a session people said was inspiring, speaking on Networked Media and Documentary for the EDN (European Documentary Network) in Athens

A walk up the Acropolis with three EDN colleagues for my first view of the Parthenon from up close, its yellow stone off-set by an azure sky

Dinner al fresco in a courtyard with Laurien (Dutch from IDFA), Meike (Dutch from IDFA) and Costas - beautiful light Greek food (tsatziki, red lentil paste, spiced meatballs, salad)

Bonus: headline and article in JC

My letter to The Independent today

I loved Matthew Norman's line in his amusing piece on Jacqui Smith and the US shock jock Michael Savage on p.31 of today's edition (7 May 09): "Michael Savage is a new name to me, as perhaps it is to you." I loved it for its irony - or perhaps revelation, having just moments earlier read the by-line of your Political Correspondent Michael Savage on p.3. I'd like to think the two of them have never been seen in the same room at the same time.

Really care

Actor Michael Sheen on Francis Coppola & Apocalypse Now:
"It's a good example because the main thing is to really care about what you are doing, to put your heart and soul into it. If you do that, then people tend to care about what you're doing."

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The sparrow that nicked a chip from my lunch - a lovely al fresco lunch in a square in Geneva on my way home from the bizarreness of Eurovisionland

The views of Switzerland from the train window from Lucerne to Geneva, especially the lake bits

Getting a nomination for Sexperience in the Broadcast Digital Awards

Weekend's Happiness Experiment entry

Sat

Reading in the sunshine by the fountain

A Phoenix outing with U to see (In the Loop)

Impromptu barbecue with neighbours Kate & James

Sun

Family cinema outing to Odeon (Muswell Hill) for Wolverine

Iphie's exercises by the balcony doors

Reading bedtime story with D

Luzern - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Midnight bells of Lucerne in the lakeside chestnut avenue

Reading Oscar Wao in the same avenue late afternoon

Speaking about Landshare, Big Art Mob and Embarrassing Bodies to the Eurovision CrossMedia summit - and listening to Chris Vallance of Radio 4 about his cross-platform experiments

Lucerne - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading the relaunch issue of Wired (uk) on the plane to Geneva - and spotting a cameo appearance of my name in a photo of Oli Barrett

The afternoon train journey from Geneva to Lucerne via Berne accompanied by David Sylvian - haven't set eyes on Berne since teenage traveling

Sunset over Lake Lucerne

The Parts of the Sum

sum es est sumus estis sunt

Dublin - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

My very own chauffeur in posh car on arrival in Dublin



Posh dinner at Bono's favourite restaurant in Temple Bar with the EU Screen Leaders folk (to whom I presented today on the subject of Networked Media and business directions)



Recognition of 2008 and Q1 09 factual cross-platform successes in weekly Programme Review gathering of C4 commissioners

Memories - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Looking at my niece's sketch book, textiles and artwork



Jogging around St Stephen's Green, Dublin



Taking my photos for the Disposable Memories project including a fiddle shop with Meabh. Sent my London and Dublin pics off with a young bloke to Barcelona

Extra: got home from Dublin and left waiting for me on my pillow was my older son's first ever mixtape called P1AN BE

Starspots #228

23/4/09 Peter Snow - St James's tube

21/4/09 Jaume Plensa - artist - at Dream, St Helens
15/4/09 Darkus Howe - Victoria Station

Dream - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing Dream for the first time (delicate, subtle beauty) in St Helens and talking to the artist Jaume Plensa



Putting live the Britain's Forgotten Children site with the finished visuals from 4Creative



Volunteering for Antony Gormley's One & Other and letting him know about the Big Art Mob One & Other group.



An arty day to be sure

An extra one, just for today: D being chosen by his teachers as School Captain and greeting me on the walk home to tell me

Monday's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing 'Good' with Ma - good performance from Jason Isaacs

Lunch chat with Oona King

Bumping into smiley Anne-Marie Hubert of JustGiving

(Van the) Man on Fire

Van Morrison and big band (of 15)

At Albert Hall



(County Down)

?

And it Stoned me

Have I Told You Lately

Caravan **

All in the Game *

The Healing has begun *

The Common One *



[Astral Weeks]

Listen to the Light

Gloria

Wednesday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting to Jason Isaacs about Good, Leslie Hardman, the holocaust and all manner of movie and history stuff of varying degrees of heaviosity at the BAFTA nominees party in Knightsbridge

Successful relaunch of Embarrassing Bodies website for series 3 - over 17 pageviews per session on average - nominated for a TV BAFTA

Playing with D around Brighton - Shakeaway milkshakes (farleys rusks and battenburg respectively), 20 Questions and the Electric. Railway

Brave New World - Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Sunset convo with D about talents in Brighton Marina

Walk in Nymans Woods decorated with bluebells

Run around eastern breakwater of the Marina listening to In Our Time on Brave New World

Father & Youngest Son - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Drawing Sue Storm with D

Watching doc about the making of The Joshua Tree with D

Reading Traces by Malcolm Somebody with D

Friday's Happiness Experiment entry

Spotting a couple of (Easter) rabbits and some partridges on a moist walk around Little Berkhamsted, Herts.

Contemplating a beautiful country church at 3pm on Good Friday

Watching The Pink Panther (with Steve Martin) en famille

Bedrock - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading 1602 on my bed - and snoozing (no reflection on 1602)



Watching The Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy on my little dvd player in bed (spotting a trend?)



Mooching with the Enfants Terribles in Crouch End and environs - including picking up a set of 3 pairs of dumbbells (one for the little one, one for the big one, one for me)

Reflection on Christianity

Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith.

Shelley

Christmas Cracker

Cracker joke just found in watch-pocket of my jeans:

What do you get if you cross a centipede with a parrot?

A walkie-talkie

Jarring experience - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

talking to N about David Lean - whilst watching a rather mediocre BBC1 documentary about him fronted by an unconvincing Jonathan Ross

the sense of big things (G20, Obama visit) happening in London

hitting 92.9


Sadly Maurice Jarre, the composer associated with David Lean and composer of the Oscar-winning soundtrack for Lawrence of Arabia, died last week (29.iii.09). Watched Lawrence of Arabia the day after first posting this with D & N - the music interacts with the desert in a marvelous way. I also love the quote from Noel Coward on Galway-born Peter O'Toole in LoA: "If he'd been any prettier, they'd have had to call it Florence of Arabia."

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Coming up with Arts ideas with like-minded colleagues - around Lamb's Conduit Street

Working from home - listening to John Martyn

Accompanying D

Money slang

funt = a pound
byce OR bottle = two pounds
carpet = three pounds
rofe = four pounds (backwards 4)
finnif OR jacks = five pounds
nevis = seven pounds (backwards 7)
cock = ten pounds (cock and hen)
score = twenty pounds
pony = twenty-five pounds
ton = one hundred pounds
monkey = five hundred pounds
G = a thousand pounds
gelt
bunce
sovs = pounds

Learnt on the job with Jackie Joseph in the Dutch auction (Stoke Newington, Putney, etc.) and Maurice Podro in The Lane (Wentworth Street) back in the days when Hoxton was a khazi

On Education

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

Plutarch

Sexperience embed test

Neologisms

Polypill - cocktail of 5 non-patent drugs to counter heart disease (30/31.3.09 reporting of article in medical journal)

Virtual reality financial products - the labyrinthine 'products' that brought about the Credit Crunch (31.3.09 Rowan Williams on BBC Radio 4)

Thought for the day - the nature of creative work

They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations.

Francis Bacon (essayist, philosopher, and statesman 1561-1626)

More compelling than Mark Twain's rather glib:
"The secret of success is to make your vocation your vacation."

Sinead O'Connor at the Pigalle Club, London, 30.iii.09

Theology acoustic



Days without end

If I had a Vineyard

Dust and ashes

I have the universe inside of me

The Emperor's New Clothes *

Black boys on mopeds *

Bunch of junky lies **

Nothing Compares 2U

Stretched across your grave

Thank you for hearing me
++++

Paddy's Lament

The glory of Jah (Sinead's favourite of her songs)

Rivers of Babylon



Keyboards (Kieran K), Guitar (Steve P)



Roddy, Adie Dunbar

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Jogging in the rain

Making love in the afternoon

Making a video for Wordia

Creative Accounting #33

The Good German = The Third Man + Casablanca + Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Creative Accounting #32

Bon Iver = Fleet Foxes + Elliott Smith + 0.25 Antony & the Johnsons

Old school joke

[To be spoken aloud with Irish accents]

An Irishman pitches up at a building site in Dublin looking for work. The foreman says "First you'll have to prove you know your stuff. Do you know what the difference is between a joist and a girder?"
"Sure, that's easy," says the builder, "Joyce wrote Finnegan's Wake and Goethe wrote Faust."

Starspots #45

Tony Robinson, Christopher Biggins (Channel 4 11.3.09)
David Steele (Whitehall 18.3.09)

Ship shape & Bristol fashion - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Glimpses of Bath including at sunset

Chairing an enjoyable speaking gig at Crossing the Void (Watershed, Bristol) - a multiplatform case study of Sexperience - with Andy Bell of Mint Digital, Iain Dodgeon of STV and Kirsty Stephenson of Cheetah TV

Watching Ireland-Scotland match with my technicallly Irish son on Paddy's Day

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Ireland play rugby, especially Rob Kearney

Playing tennis with N at Waterlow Park - first game of the year - beautiful crisp sunshine

Reading 1602 which I got from Alfie Dennen yesterday

yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

drinking Badoit from a wine glass

having a run before work

Digital Britain discussion at NESTA with Charlie Leadbeater, Mark Earls, JP Rangaswami et al

Rules of the Movies 3

Butlers are always as evil as the people they work for

(by N age 12 - inspired by Terry Thomas in How to Murder Your Wife)

Track of the Day

Don't You Go - John Martyn (from Glorious Fool) - heart-achingly beautiful

Belfast bound - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Local Friday lunch at Rugoletta

Vestiges of George Best around Belfast - like on Theo McLaughlin's mantlepiece

Running easily (around the St Pancras cemetery course)

Sudden Thoughts

Isn't it wrong that only one company makes Monopoly?

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

What happens if you're in a spaceship going at the speed of light and you turn on the headlights?

Could a million Shakespeares write like a monkey?

Jokes wot I like

A sausage walks into a bar and asks the barmaid for a double entendre so she gives him one.

Creative Accounting #31 - The Counterfeiters

Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch = Oskar Schindler (complexity, dark & light) + Col. Nicholson (River Kwai - becomes blinded by the task)

Track of the Day

Cold Water - Lisa Hannigan & Damien Rice

Cold, cold water surrounds me now
And all I've got is your hand

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking the Seven Sisters from Crowlink to Birling Gap with the Enfants Terribles - Crowlink hamlet

Jogging East of Brighton Marina listening to In Our Time on the Consolation of Philosophy

Reading about John Martyn whilst listening to Van in the wee small hours in Mariners Quay

Moving - Friday's Happiness Experiment entry

Offloading piles of paper

A desk with light and a view

Pub meeting in Rosebery Avenue about Secret Millionaire

On the road to Brighton - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Laughing with the Enfants Terribles at Pink Panther 2 (Cineworld Brighton Marina)

Comparing Shakeaway flavours

The late afternoon sunshine over the sea at Brighton - the town covered by a lid of cloud whose edge was in the east towards the marina - the sun spilled golden over that edge and into the sea

The Consolation of Philosophy

Confronted by the absurd meaninglessness of the world, the individual has to impose his own meaning on the world and establish the value of his life through Creativity.

Art (and in particular Music) is a form of Creativity. As is Love.

Philosophy revolves around the relationship between reason and the irrational, head and heart, order and chaos, meaning and meaninglessness.

Consolation is to be found by pulling back from the time-bound process of our lives to a more God-like eternal perspective out of time.

Love is Stronger than Death

[First reading at Bronagh Murphy's funeral]

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

...

13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

[Bronagh Murphy's funeral homily by Fr. Brendan McManus - 4 Feb 2009]

If you have been inspired by Bronagh's life - think about what it was that inspired you and how you could make this part of your own life. They say the best way to remember someone is to make your own a trait that you admired in them. Let’s take a moment to reflect on what that would be and take Bronagh into our hearts forever...

Care (of people) and Compassion.

Bronagh & John Remixed

Way over yonder is a place that I know
Where I can see shelter from hunger and cold
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound

I know when I get there, the first thing I'll see
Is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me
Then trouble's gonna lose me, worry leave me behind
And I'll stand up proudly in a true peace of mind

Nothing compares, nothing compares to you

And if you gave me all the things I'd never ask of you
And if you showed me all the ways you have to cry
And if you laid all night in the rain for me
I couldn't love you more
I just couldn't love you more
Just couldn't love you more

The cracks in the ground grin up at me
Even the creases in my shoes smile up at me
Thought it would end in tragedy
But I'm swimming around in your glory
O baby
O maybe
I'm the lost and found

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world's asleep,
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.

Some people are crazy
Some people are just plain good
Some people talk wouldness and couldness
Some people don't do as they should.

But this loving kind of business
Might make your poor heart glad
Yes this loving kind of business
Might be the best thing that you ever had
The best find you ever had.

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.

I could have been a whistle, could have been a flute
A real live giver, could have been a boot.
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be even here
I would be, I should be so near
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

Has anyone here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
You know, he freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young.
I just looked around and he was gone.

I am the gas in a womb of light, the evening star,
The ball of sight that leads, that sheds the tears of Christ
Dying and drying as I rise tonight.
Isabella, we are rising.
Isabella, we are rising . . .

As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.

{silence}

Way over yonder is a place I have seen
It's a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream

Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way
To the land where the honey runs in rivers each day
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound...

Ruby

You lay as on a beach

Spindley legs entwined

Nails bloody red



Waxy flesh, draping brittle bones

Like a golden yellow stole



Courtesy, not of a Floridian tan,

But a boulder of cancer

Blocking the duct



Visions of you in your days of yore

A lusty Jewish broad

Vocals etched with

Sediment of Scotch and tobacco



And as you gasped your last

I begged my God to make it fast

Bereft of drugs to ease your pain

I thought of French's sweet refrain



As your daughter wrestled with traffic

On the Finchley Road

I climbed in bed and held you tight



And from crazy Celt to dying Jew

I did the only thing I knew

Sang

"Are you right there, Ruby, are you right?"





by Bronagh Murphy, my late lamented sister-in-law

Wind & Water

"Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the other water-power."

Oliver Wendell Holmes - writer & physician (1809-1894)

Track of the Day

Theme from Schindler's List

At the end of the week of Holocaust memorial (Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated on 27th January 1945)

While reading 'I Am David' to help N with homework

Filled with sadness about Bronagh

Thinking of Bronagh - Way over yonder

Way over yonder is a place that I know
Where I can see shelter from hunger and cold
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound

I know when I get there, the first thing I'll see
Is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me
Then trouble's gonna lose me, worry leave me behind
And I'll stand up proudly in a true peace of mind

Way over yonder is a place I have seen
It's a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream

Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way
To the land where the honey runs in rivers each day
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound...

It was written for Bronagh, every word

Track of the Day - Solid Air

John Martyn - Solid Air



He's going home - over the hill...



The last thing I saw him play live was the whole Solid Air LP at the Albert Hall



We shared a birthday - RIP

Creation

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.

John Updike, writer (1932- yesterday 2009)

Channeling energies - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Elvis Costello's voice on New Amsterdam

Starting big work on Landshare with Six to Start, Mint and Keo

Channel 4 winning Channel of the Year at the Broadcast Awards

Starspot #56

Gok (Channel 4 reception yesterday)

Howard Jacobson, writer (Channel 4 21.i.09)

Jeremy Isaacs, first Chief Exec of Channel 4 (C4 21.i.09) - we spoke about Public Service Broadcasting

Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (East Finchley tube, 13.i.09) - we chatted about music and the impact of digital

Track Of The Day - Inauguration

Abraham, Martin and John - Marvin Gaye

They paved the way for TODAY

Track Of The Day

Left Bank Two by the Lance Gambit Trio - in memory of Tony Hart

Creative Accounting #45

Fleet Foxes = Crosby Stills Nash & Young + Beach Boys + The Band

Teenage Kicks - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting to Feargal Sharkey on the tube in to town

Listening to vinyl in the back room (Weekend, Miles, James Moody, Santana, etc.)

Brainstorming for URM8

Best of 2008

[Work in progress]



Film:
1 The Visitor
2 Frost/Nixon
3 In Bruges
4 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime/I've Loved You So Long
5 Hunger
6 Wall-E


Actor:
Michael Fassbinder (Hunger)


Actress:
Kristen Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long)


Supporting Actor:
Heath Ledger (Dark Knight)


Supporting Actress:
Anne-Marie Duff (Garage)


Director:
Steve McQueen (Hunger)


Script:
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges


Animation:
Wall-E


TV:
Osama bin Everywhere (Channel 4)


LP:
(Asa - Asa)
(Givin' It Up - George Benson & Al Jarreau)


Single:
Beggin' - Madcon (Asa - Jailer, Portishead - The Rip)

Gig:
Schlomo & various guests [Jarvis Cocker, Cleveland Watkiss et al] (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank)

Book:
(The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon)

Art exhibition:
Francis Bacon (Tate Britain)

Play:
Brendan at the Chelsea (Lyric)

Sports event:
Saracens vs Newcastle Falcons
(Snatches of the Olympic action glimpsed in and around Bayonne)

Website:
http://www.foundmagazine.com

Late Christmas Cracker

Q: What's the first sign of madness?
A: Suggs coming up the driveway

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing August: Osage County at the National Theatre performed by Steppenwolf Company from Chicago with Janey Walker - and bumping into my cousin Jonathan, Carl, my cousin's cousin Chloe, Luke formerly of Channel 4's drama dept. and Sarah friend of Manou (all the world's a small stage)

Walking home through fog coloured with diffused sodium light

Listening to Soul Music about So What (Radio 4)

Creative Accounting #421

The Corrections + The Cocktail Party/Family Reunion(?) + Tennessee Williams + Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf = August: Osage County

Track of the Day

So What - Miles Davis - from Kind of Blue (1959) as featured on Soul Music (BBC Radio 4)

Image courtesy of Miles Constable: "I attempted to capture the swirl and tones of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue"

True Value

For money you can have everything it is said. No, that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honour; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money.

Arne Garborg, Norwegian writer (1851-1924)

Track of the Day

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley



Don't worry about a thing
cause every little thing gonna be all right
Singin don't worry about a thing
cause every little thing gonna be all right

Rise up this mornin
Smiled with the risin sun
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true
Sayin: this is my message to you-ou-ou

New Year's Happiness Experiment entry

Wed 31 Dec 2008:

A pint of the black stuff with Matteo in PJ's, Carlingford - plus a chat with Ian Fox, same spot an hour before

People giving the (Irish) finger from their passing cars

A chat with Pierre McDonagh in his kitchen in Greenore

Thu 1 Jan 2009:

Making a fire with D - in Bernadette's house (kept it going all day)

Watching war movies with N (looking after him while sick)

Reading Watchmen while listening to Kind of Blue in bed

Today:

Jogging along the mountain for the last time this trip - to the white forest gate past the steps by the stream

Lunch with my nieces Meabh and Orla, with a fleeting appearance from Eileen and Mateo - at McKevitt's

Taking leave of Bronagh - she read from Seamus Heaney's Clearances (the one about peeling potatoes)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Guinnesses and hot port with Dan, Eoin, Colum and Angie over at McKevitt's - the walks there & back through nighttime Carlingford

Taking the Enfants Terribles, Joe and Mikey to the cinema (Madagscar 2) in Newry

Talking literature with Bronagh on the bunk bed (after a run around Slieve Foy)

Track of the Day - 25 Dec 08

Way Over Yonder - Carole King - from Tapestry

For Bronagh - listening in the bedroom at Bernadette's with Bronagh, Una and Elizabeth - tears flowing...

Creative Accounting #601

Adem = Coldplay + Damien Rice

TrackOfTheDay

Statuing by Adem from Homesongs (good after a shower when the house is empty & you're contemplating food at Dan's Stonewall Caff)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading Richard Price's Samiritan - reminded he is one of my favourite writers, writes great dialogue, loves story telling

Watching old sitcoms with Bronagh and the Enfants Terribles

Walking around Dundalk with U - Modern Fashions, the stationery/art shop opposite the Court House, etc.

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Saturday 27th Dec:

Watching D laughing at Vicar of Dibley and Only Fools and Horses

Family walk along Shelling Hill strand in late afternoon sunshine

Hanging with the young cousins (Conor McG, Conor McK, Orla, Meabh, Sean)


Sunday 28th Dec:

Giving D his Stylaphone

Running along the harbour, Carlingford

Watching D and Bronagh together in the sitting room at Ceol na Mara

Best of 2008

[Work in progress]



Film:

The Visitor



Actor:

Michael Fassbinder (Hunger)



Actress:

Tbc



Supporting Actor:

Heath Ledger (Dark Knight)



Supporting Actress:

Marie-Anne Duff (Garage)



Director:

Steve McQueen (Hunger)



Script:

Martin McDonagh - In Bruges



Animation:

Wall-e



LP:

Tbc



Single:

Asa - Jailer



Gig:

Schlomo & various guests (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank)



Book:

Tbc



Art exhibition:

Francis Bacon (Tate Britain)



Play:

Tbc



Sports event:

Saracens vs Newcastle Falcons

TrackOfTheDay

Look Up - Zero 7 (reading Watchmen - memories of running along the dunes in Rush, Co. Dublin)

Christmas Eve Happiness Experiment entry

Jogging around the foot of the mountain in Carlingford in bright winter sunshine



A spontaneous gathering at Dan's caff in the afternoon with Bronagh making an appearance with her friends Theresa and Peter



(Getting some fresh blood on my ipod thanks to Connor McKevitt and having a music tidy-up session just before) Christmas eve wrapping time, always a quiet contemplative time

Science and Religion

"Science is a good system for understanding materials and material things, but there are plenty of things in life that don't fall into that category. Poetry, music, art, the love I have for my grandchild. Even if I could, I wouldn't want to weigh and measure that, or my relationship with my friends, or with the sunset.



But equally I do want the ideas I formulate about God to be consistent with my knowledge of Science. So I've never needed to believe in impossible things."



Prof. Pauline Rudd, biologist, UCD (Dublin)

Pantheism

What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos

Einstein

Christmas Cracker #3

I just bought the wife a bag for Christmas.
(Hoover's working a treat now.)

Starspots #55

Alexa Chung
Victor Lewis Smith
124 Horseferry Road - last week

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Jogging around the foot of Slieve Foy in a rare burst of sunshine (listening to The Word podcast)

Talking painting with Bronagh and N

Listening to Blood on the Tracks loud alone in Bernadette's place

Newry - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading Alan Moore's Watchmen by the fire

Playing Monopoly with the Enfants Terribles on an old Irish set I bought for 10 euros in the junk shop in Carlingford - dates from the Free State (1921-1937), in great nick

Caff lunch with U in downtown Newry

TrackOfTheDay

You're a Big Girl - Bob Dylan

"Love is so simple
To quote a phrase"

TrackOfTheDay

Lola - the Kinks (alumni of the school down our road [Fortismere, back then Muswell Hill something school], as was The Faces' Rod Stewart) heard in caff in Newry

Christmas Cracker #2

Q. What do you get if you cross a centipede with a parrot? A. A walkie-talkie

Christmas Cracker #1

Q. Why did the scientist fit a knocker to his door?

A. Because he wanted to win the No Bell Prize

Gusto - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching D deliver his nativity play line with great gusto (coached by his mum?)

Watching the Maccabbean fighters in Defiance with the Enfants Terribles

Sorting cashflow for D's new phase

Track of the Day

When Poets Dreamed of Angels - David Sylvian from Secrets of the Beehive

Oz wizardry - Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching preview of Australia at 20th Century Fox in Soho Square with U

A haircut which is good from the moment you walk out (by Chris at Concrete)

The boy in 'Australia' (Brandon something) - a wonderful presence

The missing ingredient

Q.

"What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?"

Adam Smith, economist (1723-1790)

A. Love

Living in Fear

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived." from Baz Luhrman's Strictly Ballroom - the line is now carried on the logo of his production company - spotted last night at the start of Australia

Thought of School - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

D's excitement at the prospect of his new school - using a saw was a highlight of his trial days there

Talking London history with D as we walked along the Albert Embankment

Moderating animations on 4mations

close to home - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

low winter afternoon sun - illuminating purposeful stroll around our high street with N, including coffee from Amici

buying sports gear with N - tracksuit, etc. with style advice from a 12 year old

watching Mama Mia en famille round the fire

Track of the Day

Moonriver performed by Morrissey

Track of the Day (yesterday)

Moonriver performed by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's

Henry Mancini said of Audrey H: "'Moon River' was written for her. No one else had ever understood it so completely. There have been more than a thousand versions of 'Moon River', but hers is unquestionably the greatest".