Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Celebration post-exam lunch with N in garden of Cote, Highgate

Deep illness/cold sleep in the morning

Evening jog and garden read

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Celebration dinner for end of N's exams with N & D discussing N's work experience day at Ogilvy

Listening to dub reggae in the dark, in particular Ranking Dread

Meeting with Alex A and Tim Lovejoy about State

Starspot #549

20/5/14

Paul O'Grady (TRSE)
Barbara Windsor
Gary Kemp

Yesterday's HEE

Watching a dog catch a frisbee on our evening walk around Kenwood en famille

Writing up Power to the People in conjunction with Mark Stevenson

A solid day's writing and reading work at home

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas & John Newman - Proud Camden

Proud Camden

1 heatwave **
2 many rivers to cross
3 jimmy b * come back jimmy b
4 something
5 dancing in the street

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

D dancing with Michael Franti

Talk about/in front of Seurat's Baigneurs a Asnieres

Reading while listening to LSO rehearsal in Trafalgar Square

Michael Franti & Spearhead - Islington Assembly Hall - with Dylan

1 11:59 and 59 seconds**
2 Closer to You
3 Never Let You Go
4 Forever there for you * (new song - about 15 year old son)
5 All the Freaky People
6 I Love You
7 first song from new album (out in June)
Hey World
bits of It's A Family Affair, Bomb the World

I'm Alive
Life is Better with You
On and on?
Say goodbye?

Starspot #387

Antony Worrall Thompson (Gatwick 28.4.14)

Nick Lowe at Union Chapel, Islington

1 Cruel to Be Kind
2 House for Sale
3 Without Love
Check Out Time
4 I Knew The Bride when she used to rock'n'roll
Encore:
5 Only a Rose * - with Geraint Watkins (vocals & keyboards)
6 What's so funny about peace love and understanding

Previous: Once or twice at BBC Songwriters' Circle

Quotation: The Simple Pleasure of Food

I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.

Dodie Smith (born May 3, 1896) best known for I Capture the Castle and The Hundred and One Dalmations

Quotation: fighting a hard battle

Article dated January 1898 in a Boston, Massachusetts periodical, Zion’s Herald (though probably published in England before December 25, 1897):

“IAN MACLAREN,” along with other celebrities, was asked to send a Christmas message to an influential religious weekly in England. He responded by sending the short but striking sentence: “Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.” No message is more needed in our days of stress and storm, of selfish striving and merciless competition.

See Quote Investigator

Today read an article in The Guardian about a new hit economics book, Capital in the 21st century - it's thrust is:

 * Returns to capital are rising faster than economies are growing. The wealthy are getting wealthier while everybody else is struggling. Inequality will widen to the point where it becomes unsustainable – both politically and economically – unless action is taken to redistribute income and wealth.
* rising inequality is killing capitalism
* there are limits to what markets can do

 which gives the 1898 phrase "our days of stress and storm, of selfish striving and merciless competition" particular resonance

YHEE

A hard day's work on SFV

A good night's sleep

Giving the Enfants Terribles their Tshirts from Toronto

YHEE -Toronto

Bumping into John & Andrea by chance at Gatwick straight after their wedding weekend

Meeting the makers of Edwyn Collins doc and Clueless/teen comedy film on taxi into downtown Toronto - correctly guessing the roots of the latter

Reading in the milky afternoon sun in calm oasis that is quad of University of Toronto/Victoria

This weekend's Happiness Experiment entries

Sat

Publishing Songlines #7 to relaunch the project, inspired by yesterday's gathering at October Gallery

Listening back to my very young sons' voices on Songlines

Listening to John & Andrea's wedding vows in an ancient chapel in Dode, Kent

Sun

A long walk around the North Downs of Kent with U through bluebell woods and country lanes

Reading A Whispered Name on a wet Sunday afternoon by the balcony

Coming home

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Brainstorming around branded short form video with four work colleagues at the October Gallery in Bloomsbury

Watching Gogglebox on Channel 4

Recording two Songlines

Today's Happiness Experiment - Cambridge

John Craxton's paintings (on first visit to Fitzwilliam for yonks)

Walking around the gardens of Girton

Ploughman's Lunch in The Orchard, Granchester

c1922

Creative Accounting #267

Robert Redford + Faye Dunaway (Three Days of the Condor) = Robert Donat + Madeleine Carroll (The 39 Steps)

[yoked together]

Creative Accounting #266

Serpico + Sidney (Lumet) / Three Days of the Condor + Sydney (Pollack) = Who can you Trust?

John Craxton - Fitzwilliam, Cambridge 12/4/14

Cf Picasso - Antibes period
Chagall
Aitchison
Nash
Piper

Blake
Palmer
Miro, Leger

Eg
Pastoral for PW 48

Red and Yellow LS 45
Modern palette
50s graphic style

Friend of L Freud
Knew Julian Trevelyan
Horizon
Peter Watson
Knew Sutherland
Born 22
Friend of Patrick Leigh fermor
Collected by peter pears

Cart Track 42/3
SciFi
Luminous
De Chirico

Deeply Greek/Mediterranean

Dark LS: Hydra 60/61
Highly graphical cf Hepworth, Nicholson; St Ives

Margot Fonteyn and John Craxton in Greece, 1951

12/4/14 UB40 - St Albans, Alban Arena

with Una

Getting over the Storm

0 Cherry-O Baby
1 Don't Let It Pass You By **
2 Boomboomshackalacka *
3 One in 10
Here I am (Come & Take Me)
~~~~~~~
4 Love is all is alright *
Can't help falling in love with you

THEE

Late lunch en plein air at Quai St Pierre

Reading on the beach beside the Palais, beach all to myself

Reading on the beach at the Western end of town en plein soleil

YHEE Cannes

Dinner overlooking the sea at my favourite restaurant in Juan Les Pins

Another jog to Port Gallice at sundown

Interesting short form video insights at MIP Digital Fronts, especially from Vice

YHEE Juan Les Pins

Chilled out dinner outdoors in typical S. French restaurant

Finishing Dark Side of the Moon book over laid back salad lunch

Sundown jog to port at East end of Juan

YHEE

Dinner at the Bull & Bush with old friends - Richard over from Oakland, JRT, Dan

Very deep orange sunset from the train just outside Bristol

Giving a lecture at the Watershed Bristol for DocFest (Devise to Deliver)

YHEE

Walking 7.5 miles through parks with U culminating with a selfie atop Primrose Hill

Family dinner in Highgate after the long march

Watching The Conversation with N and U

Numbers

No number in English has an A til you get to a thousAnd

Creative Accounting #570

The Hostage / Behan = outcasts of the world unite

Creative Accounting #569

Serpico / Watergate = distrust in power right to the top

YHEE

Camden Town breakfast with a Beckett actress

A chat with Kate Q

Watching Serpico with N

Creative Accounting #438

Pierce Brosnan (A Long Way Down) = David Bowie / voice X accent

ABC at Theatre Royal Drury Lane 30/3/14

ABC
Anne Dudley
South Bank Symphonia

1 When smokey sings
2 Ten degrees below zero
3 Viva Love
4 The night you murdered love
5 One better world (Hacienda)
6 Ocean Blue
7 How to be a millionaire
8 Be Near Ne

9 LEXICON OF LOVE
4ever 2gether *

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Writing some of Littlewood chapter of When Sparks Fly

Getting back to Simple Pleasures part 4

Finishing A Long Way Down late at night

Sunday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chat & stroll in Avenue House Park with N

Last Supper with Meabh & Rob before they return to Ireland

Reading A Long Way Down in the setting sun near the canal at Maida Vale

Creative Accounting #241 - comic city writers

A Long Way Down (2014)

Nick Hornby / London = Roddy Doyle / Dublin

The Commitments (1991)

Creative Accounting #554

Nick Cave = Ian Curtis(Joy Division) + Gil Scott Heron(Blues)

(on watching 20,000 Days on Earth)

Today's Happiness Experiment - That's my family, Gee

Introducing The Godfather to N

Judging C4 Researcher Scheme pitches including Wishful Linking

Listening to Bowie radio doc by Adam Buxton and giggling on the tube

Richard Hamilton - Tate Modern - opening

Just What Is It... 1956
"Tabular as well as pictorial"

Paint and collage of Pop Stuff

Michael Horovitz

Hannah Höch - Whitechapel Gallery

Fused half faces L and R
Fused jaw/lower face
Use a hole punch for perfect coloured circles
Collaged signature
Attractive palettes

Creative Accounting #725

Stevie Winwood/voice = Peter Gabriel/voice

Creative Accounting #725

Benedict Cumberbatch / Star Trek Into Darkness = Paul Dano / 12 Years a Slave

Creative Accounting #724 - Piano

inspired by Satie - Gymnopedie No.1

right hand = black lines
left hand = colour

Backburner - Creative Thinking

My mind works in idleness. To do nothing is often my most profitable way.

— Virginia Woolf

YHEE

Friday night dinner at Clive & Jeanie's including cholla

Researching YouTube

Handing back session with Mark Atkin

YHEE End of sabbatical

Clouds over allotments against azure sky as I left for lunch at Rugoletta with U

Watching Star Trek Into Darkness with D, my first Trek in eons

Finishing When Sparks Fly proposal complete with pics to round off sabbatical

Saturday's HEE

Brushing shoulders with Chris Ashton, David Strettle, Steve Borthwick, Chris Wyles, Neil de Kock, Alex Goode, Schalk Britts, Alistair Hargreaves (The Viking), Michael Tagicakibau at Saracens in Hendon with N (thanks to Syd)

Seeing The Wolf of Wall Street for the second time on the big screen at Holloway Odeon with U & Leafy

Sitting chatting with N outside Sarries stadium while waiting for Syd

THEE

Reading about the Beat Hotel in St Mary Magdalene churchyard, Holloway at sundown

Chatting at Kipferl with Patrick Uden

Watching Dallas Buyers Club with U and N

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading back my blog post below on my last visit to Howth

The Elvis and busker stories in 'Springsteen & I'

Apple strudel from Parkway opposite the Hippodrome

YHEE

The yellow winter light at Sandycove for (3rd) visit to Martello Tower and Forty Foot

Steve Lock showing me his FAC51 Hacienda card

Catching up with John Had at Bewley's Hotel

Tuesday's Happiness Experiment entry

14.i.14

Working in the National Library of Ireland (like Leopold Bloom)

The Stag's Head, Dame Court with Elisabeth & Des, Sean & Orla

Checking out the set of 'Fair City' at RTE campus, Donnybrook

YHEE - Dublin, fair city

Views from the plane - luminous orange windsock, Godsky, clouds above sea, coast North of Dublin illuminated by low winter afternoon sun

Reading Ulysses on Sandymount Strand on my phone (Stephen in Sandymount bit near beginning)

Dinner & chat in Dublin with Colm from RTE - Mexican and pub around Dame St

YHEE home & family

Watching two brothers doing football training at Avenue House

Talking about history (mainly WW1) with D and looking at pictures

D's jokes when we were watching August: Osage County en famille "#team barbara"

Creative Accounting #410

Otis Redding = Bobby Womack = John Newman

Creative Accounting #409

Everly Brothers + Buddy Holly = The Beatles

Creative Accounting #408

August: Osage County = Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf + The Big Chill

Robert Elms' New Year's Eve Show 31/12/13

This excellent show was a look-back at the best of the year's tracks and live sessions on Radio London. 

Title: Midnight in Havana
Artist: Louis Vause

Title: Dexys
Artist: She Got a Wiggle

Title: Joss Stone (Live)
Artist: Teardrops

Title: Where Are We Now?
Artist: David Bowie

Title: Get it Right
Artist: Maddy Carty

Title: No Love Dying (Live)
Artist: Gregory Porter

Title: The Ballad of Roza Shanina
Artist: Rae and Christian

Title: Handbags and Gladrags (Live)
Artist: Mike D’Abo

Title: The Best Jewel Thief in the World
Artist: Prefab Sprout

Title: Feel It All (Live)
Artist: KT Tunstall

Title: My Promise
Artist: Earth, Wind and Fire

Title: For a While
Artist: Alice Russell

Title: Calling Out To You (Live)
Artist: Tedeschi Trucks Band

Title: Keep the Faith
Artist: Alexia Coley

Title: Never Stop Building (That old Space Rocket) (Live)
Artist: Danny and the Champions of the World

Title: Brighton Beach
Artist: Rod Stewart

Title: Astral Travelling (Live)
Artist: Lonnie Liston-Smith

Title: Children Go where I Send Thee
Artist: Nick Lowe

Title: Come Rain or Shine
Artist: Paul Carrack

Title: Midnight Rider (Live)
Artist: Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra

Title: She (Live)
Artist: Laura Mvula

Title: Jericho
Artist: Leslie Mendelson

Title: Be Good To Me
Artist: The Delegators

Title: You Can’t Keep Rhythm From A Dancer
Artist: Tortured Soul

Title: Let’s Face the Music and Dance
Artist: Willie Nelson

Title: Maureen
Artist: Casey K

Title: When In Rome Do As The Romans Do (Live)
Artist: Cecile McLorin Salvant

Title: Part of Me
Artist: Tedeschi Trucks Band

My first music of 2014 - a souvenir

Jool's Hootenanny was absolutely superb this year so I'm keeping this as a souvenir:

Jools Holland & his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra

John Newman
Ray Davies
Laura Mvula
Haim
Melanie C
Rudimental
Ella Eyre
Emeli Sande
Charlie Wilson
Lisa Stansfield
The Proclaimers
Ruby Turner
Dawn Penn
Lee Thompson& his Ska Orchestra
The Lumineers

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
That's Not What You Said Last Night

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Carry On
Singer: Lisa Stansfield

HAIM
Don't Save Me

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
There Goes My Baby
Singer: Charlie Wilson

Rudimental
Feel the Love
Singer: John Newman (my first impression of him)

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Jumpin' In The Morning
Singer: Ruby Turner.

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
All Day And All Of The Night
Singer: Ray Davies

Rudimental
Waiting All Night

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
I Wish
Singer: Melanie C

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Green Garden
Singer: Laura Mvula

The Lumineers
Ho Hey

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Love Me Again
Singer: John Newman (highlight of the show)

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Oops Upside Your Head
Singer: Charlie Wilson

The Proclaimers
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Lola
Singer: Ray Davies

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
All Around The World
Singer: Lisa Stansfield

HAIM
Forever

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra and Lee Thompson
You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)
Singer: Dawn Penn

Rudimental
Free

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Outstanding
Singer: Charlie Wilson

The Proclaimers
Letter From America

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
See Line Woman
Singer: Laura Mvula

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Never Be The Same Again
Singer: Melanie C

The Lumineers
Classy Girls

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Bangarang 2

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
A Fool For You
Singer: John Newman (blues/Otis)

HAIM
Oh Well

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Wagner's Tannhäuser (Pilgrim's Chorus)

Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Skin And Bone
Singer: Ray Davies

Finale: Enjoy Yourself

Creative Accounting #893

John Newman = Otis Redding (but younger and paler)

Laura Mvula = Asa [Asha] (but less French)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Buying My Generation and other vinyl in Alan's sale

Bumping into Saoirse at Kenwood

Reading John Updike in Kenwood library

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Co-writing with Doug M at British Library

Starting 2nd draft of When Sparks Fly

A steak dinner en famille - in Holloway

Thinking outside Box - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The overflowing pale green river at Castle Coombe

The knight with crossed legs in Castle Coombe church

A contemplative New Year walk from Hillhouse Farm to Dittering(?) drawing the conclusion below

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

A night walk with U from Hillhouse Farm, Box

Watching the beautiful Technicolor of The Sound of Music for the first time with U

Black satin trousers

2014

I will enjoy my day

I will care about others

Terri Hooley 2

On the Belfast fire-bomber who set himself on fire yesterday night - He'll not be doing that again in a hurry.

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Terri Hooley

On the Connemara whiskey I bought him: I'll save that for a special occasion ...like when I'm thirsty.

Blasts from the Pasts

Jon King - Gang of Four

Gary Kemp - Spandau Ballet

Malcolm Garrett

Neville Brody

Pat Kane - Hue & Cry

Martyn Ware - Heaven 17

Oisin Lunny

THEE

Meeting Kathelin Gray at BAFTA, friend of William Burroughs, with roots in Hippy San Francisco

A visit to Hatchards where I bought Robert Harris' novel about the Dreyfus affair

Finishing The One from The Other by Philip Kerr

Beat Fact #21

In the Bond movie You Only Live Twice (in the Osaka Corporation offices) you see a Burroughs calculating machine - invented by William Burroughs' grandfather

Star Spot #560

Christopher Eccleston 29/11/13 outside Kenwood House

Creative Accounting #644 - Aztec Camera

Aztec Camera = The Clash + Wes Montgomery
(according to Roddy Frame)

Aztec Camera = Nick Lowe + Squeeze
(according to Addy Gee)

YHEE

Asking questions to Stephen Frears about Philomena (which made me cry - the film not the questioning)

Roddy Frame's yellow-gold Gibson ES-295 'Scotty Moore' guitar at his performance of High Land, Hard Rain at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Reading The One From The Other on the Sunday tube, a Bernie Gunther historical thriller