Post!

It's a bit of a pale and limping thing this blog these days. Maybe I should reconsider/reconfigure it...

Meantime these make me almost as happy as the spring sun that's appearing and the tea I've just drunk. You can almost smell the blossom.

Apology

But first:



Hooray!

Amidst packing to be at the flat near the TV studio (I'm still working away at least a third of the week at the moment) I realized that there are a lot of emails I haven't had time to reply to. So this is kind of a catchall apology (I think it's not the first) to students etc. who've written asking for essay interviews and the like. I'm sorry if I've missed you, but it's likely that I will continue to do so for a while, even while I've caved and bought an iphone (as much a distraction as a help!), I'm keeping up with a team of about eighteen people on the show, and faraway essays and stuff do fall off the edge of most day's to-do lists.

Here's a lovely thing that came that way some time ago...

Red Ted!

Good News!

Somebody brilliant got for me, not only a maths cauliflower,



but also amazing tickets to see Joanna Newsom.

As well as all that, several animation things are at last falling into place.

...

Ahem,
This week I am discovering that writing, arranging, designing, directing, pre-producing, and producing can cause more than slight stress when attempted all-at-once.

Besides that surprising news, here are some things that I await with trepidation:

Joann Sfar's film "fable" about Serge Gainsbourg,

Temple Grandin, the movie,

The new Joanna Newsom record.

And some things with intrepid weight:

Poets ranked by beard weight.

Also, I am a big fan of this man's toys, and you might be too.

Signs of Life

Hello,

I did survive into 2010. In fact Christmas and New Year were both really lovely, I just haven't had a moment to look back (and while work is fun and a privilege at the moment, doing so makes me a bit melancholy).

I remember some stuff about one end of the country...





...and then the other...





...this song, which I just got a tv-show episode out of (one of 52 that have to be written, which is why there isn't time for blog posts)...



...and wasn't there something to do with a seven-foot icicle?



Not to mention bagpipes.

(Not to mention them, but there are more videos of the piping and such [not mine] here).

Happy Birthday to me...

This Gramophone is a present from my Honeysuckle Rose:



I'm off to the deep south of Cornwall Christmas, then again off to the low north/south of Scotland for new year. There will be traditional music and dancing, and despite grand intentions it'll probably turn out like this:


(If you aren't convinced that's genuine, look up Stian Carstensen).

Merry Everything!

Merry Christmas!

I sang a bit of backing and played accordion for Yo's Christmas ditty.
Consequently the accordion police are coming for me...