Eternity

It's been ages since I've written - busy with work and all that. Apologies if for some insane reason you drop in on my occasional ranting. Hope you've enjoyed the peace and quiet.



Went to see Jan Garbarek at the Royal Festival Hall.



I know nothing about jazz. Very little. Some Ella, some Miles Davis. I know enough to dislike Jamie Cullum, but not enough to occasionally not find Diana Krall charming. So it's no surprise that I had no idea who Jan Garbarek is.He's a quite internationally famous Norwegian jazz saxophonist (if not THE most famous Norwegian jazz saxophonist. I don't kow). He's touring in a quartet that includes a rather manic (and frightfully dressed) female percussionist who filled practically every minute with the tinkering of little bells or enormous drums.



Tim, who introduces me to new and better things, found it slightly tedious -especially the extended solo slots. He's allowed. He knows better - I don't. I grinned stupidly as I do when listening to live music and wondering how they play 'all of those notes' and enjoyed myself. The wine may have helped. And getting to spend time with one of my favourite people (Tim, not Jan).



In a couples of weeks, Akram Khan and the Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery.



See, I can do high brow too.



Otherwise:



Reading: The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (the 2004 Man Booker prize winner)

Watching: Spooks (Rupert Penry-Jones. Sigh)

Listening: Rufus Wainwright, Want Two

Bless ...

I don't normally countenance this sort of thing, but as godfather I feel compelled to point you to pictures of Sophie, clearly a charmer.

Why I love Paris, no.1

The walk to the no.7 line in the Montparnasse metro station is a long tunnel with a moving walkway. It normally travels 2.5 km/h. Today, I took the new superfast moving walkway. It's 9 km/h. It flies through the tunnel. So much so that one feels compelled to giggle like a child on a snowsled. I did worry about how one gets off the speedy walkway. Would I go flying? No, because at the other end, little steel rollers gently ease one off the 9 km and back to walking speed.



It's one reason why I love Paris.

It's my brithday and I'll pleurer if I want to

Off to Paris for a quiet birthday celebration so happy birthday to me.

Voice

Today Alison Moyet releases Voice, an album of 'classic songs' (not covers, mind.) It's stunningly beautiful, simple, tasteful. Arranged and produced by Anne Dudley, Academy Award winning composer, it's an eclectic affair - Purcell, Brel, Elvis Costello, and Michel Legrand. The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies-O!, which every schoolkid in England apparently knows and Elvis Costello's Almost Blue are both sublime. And she sings in French - Je crois encore entendre and Brel's La chanson des vieux amants.



She says in interviews that it's not a 'covers' album as she learned all of the songs from the original sheet music and her singing is sweet and unadorned. I hope she tours with it.

Drool

The new Apple iMac.

Uh oh

So I recently agreed to temporarily be creative director on the BT account and now I'm 'acting' head of creative for the office as the last one recently resigned. I'm a bit terrified of the workload, but excited to be back managing a department and worrying about utilisation and contractors and, oh yeah, creativity.