Our street is strewn with discarded Christmas trees. They look like they have been thrown out the door, without the residents even making it onto the pavement. Is it OK to just throw trees onto the pavement? Do they just get collected or have they arranged collection? And why are there always TVs abandoned on certain corners? I chopped up and bagged our lovely tree in a manly fashion to the sound of “Remain In Light” by Talking Heads. Maybe I didn’t need to bother.
I have just been writing and heard a police car’s siren speeding past outside. They were chasing a kid on a pushbike,. He crashed into a parked car outside our flat, went flying over the handle-bars and across the bonnet of the car, then ran off. A policewoman raced after him on foot, and the car followed. There are now two helicopters circling low overhead; it is LOUD. I presume the kid has done more than just steal the bike, which is now crumpled and leaning against our railings. More of this and I will end up writing that inner city Clash album, which I am sure Jim would love us to make…
The writing is going fairly well. As Martin Stephenson said “My subconscious and I are back on speaking terms”. When you first start on a new project it takes a while to get back into the swing of things. I find that it is once I have written a song that I think is pretty good that I relax, start to enjoy it and pick up speed. Writing is akin to hopping alone into a small boat each night and heading off exploring across a big black sea. You are keen to travel and discover somewhere new, but there are powerful currents that can mean you end up in a place you gave been to many times before. Conversely, sometimes you set off for a familiar destination and land somewhere completely new. It is a solitary, exasperating, fulfilling, calming, cathartic process.
Of course, most of the real writing does not happen at a table, in front of a book, or a laptop. It happens walking to and from work, in the bath, or most annoyingly, awake in the night. This is where ideas take shape and problems get solved. I remember Woody Allen saying something similar, how he really worked things out while walking round New York, or taking a shower. He said that in the early days he could walk round Manahttan happily thinking things through, but now he gets stopped all the time, so is forced to either walk up and down his balcony, or take a shower. Hence he regularly takes three showers a day, staying in there for forty-five minutes or so, just working things out. No wonder he is small.
As I am enjoying the writing, I occasionally think I should just carry on until I get bored, maybe write all year. But then the album would not be out for ages. But maybe it would be a better record… or maybe not. You have to make a call on quantity versus quality. Two heroes of mine have gone in opposite directions. Scott Walker declared years ago that he would rather make one album each decade that he is truly happy with than put out stuff which he does not love. That is just what he has done, producing three albums proper in the last three decades. Whilst I love Scott taking this approach, as a fan, I can’t help wish he was putting out more albums. Bill Nelson has taken the opposite route. For the last twenty years or so he has created a piece of music almost every day, and has then released most of it, as it is, without further adornment or edit. Whilst I love Bill’s approach, spontanaeity and work ethic, as a fan, I am overwhelmed, and can’t help but feel that he could produce a truly great album if he cherry-picked and edited his output. So I think that the typical artist output of an album each couple of years is probably about right. I still intend to write until March then see what I have got.
After much alcohol accompanied debate, Bridie and I have finalised our list of favourite films of 2009. Bear in mind that we err on the side of arty (while always willing the mainstream to be great), and that this is a joint list. I raved about the movies of 2008, and 2009 was even better. It was a year of genre excellence, with amazing War, Horror, Musicals, Sci-Fi and Documentaries. The great directors revelled in the sheer joy of making films and it showed. Even mainstream studio movies fizzed with energy and invention. So here we go: 1 Inglourious Basterds (just SO entertaining) 2 Antichrist (could also have been 1; very beautiful and manages to capture Man’s ultimate inability to understand Woman) 3 Michael Jackson This Is It (left to my own devices I would probably have had this at 1: real pure genius captured on celluloid) 4 Synecdoche New York (not cheery, but a great allegory of a life) 5 Funny People (don’t get why people don’t love this, surely a classic?) 6 Beaches Of Agnes (another beautiful, bold tableau of life) 7 Let The Right One In (super-cool vampire flick) 8 Moon (super-cool sci-fi flick) 9 Two Lovers (really under-rated movie take on Ronnie Corbett’s “Sorry” or Dostoyesky, depending on your viewpoint) 10 The Cove (preaching to the converted to Bridie and I, but this is a fascinating, tense, thriller of a documentary) 11 Where The Wild Things Are 12 The Hurt Locker 13 Gran Torino 14 Frost/Nixon 15 A Serious Man 16 Bruno 17 Up 18 Drag Me To Hell 19 Coraline 20 Last Chance Harvey 21 Curious Case Of Benjamin Button 22 Orphan 23 Whatever Works 24 Adventureland 25 Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist 26 Fantastic Mr Fox 27 The Class 28 Creation 29 In The Loop 30 The Damned United 31 Mesrine 32 Mid August Lunch 33 Marley and Me 34 Le Donk & Scorzayzee 35 Paranormal Activity 36 District 9 37 Surveillance 38 The White Ribbon 39 Sunshine Cleaning 40 Frozen River 41 Encounters At The Edge of the World 42 The Informant! 43 A Few Days in September 44 Me & Orson Welles 45 Newtown Killers 46 Hush 47 Looking for Eric 48 State and Play 49 I Love You Man 50 Star Trek 51 Vicky Cristina Barcelona 52 The Reader 53 Revolutionary Road 54 (500) Days of Summer 55 Nowhere Boy 56 Trick r Treat 57 The Children 58 He’s Just Not That Into You 59 Bolt 60 Slumdog Millionaire 61 35 Shots of Rum 62 The Girl cut in Two 63 Choke 64 Wendy and Lucy 65 Cold Souls 66 Quiet Chaos 67 The Grocers Son 68 Kamikazes Girls 69 Telstar 70 Not Quite Hollywood 71 Taking Woodstock 72 Paris Is Burning 73 Doubt 74 Management 75 Julie & Julia 76 The September Issue 77 The Gray Man 78 Dead Snow 79 North Face 80 Gonzo the Life of Hunter S Thompson 81 Anvil 82 Public Enemies 83 Dorian Gray 84 Lakeview Terrace 85 Is Anybody There? 86 Helen 87 Defiance 88 Genova 89 Coco Before Chanel 90 Cadillac Records 91 Private Lives of Pippa Lee 92 The Day The Earth Stood Still 93 Bottleshock 94 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 95 Outlander 96 Monsters vs. Aliens 97 Observe & Report 98 Il Divo 99 The Baader Meinhof Complex 100 Religious Here’s to 2010…