1. I caught the first two episodes of series 2 of Sherlock. What a great show. Fabulous writing, especially A Scandal in Belgravia. And the cast is just spot on.
2. A bit of marvel action in Captain America: The First Avenger. I’m a sucker for comic book superhero movies (mis-spent childhood), and this was better than I expected it to be. I am very excited now about The Avengers, coming later this year.
3. Had a fabulous and motivational lunch with a good friend who’s also head honcho at a leading print and digital publishing company. He’s currently putting together a Craft Day on creativity for his editorial and design teams and he’s asked me to present on digital creativity - right up my street.
4. Re-discovered the music of Charles Mingus . I used to love Mingus back when I was playing a lot of jazz bass (late 80s early 90s) and hadn’t listened to him much for a while. Check out Ah-Um, Mingus Mingus Mingus and Blues & Roots for classic examples of his Soul/Blues/Gospel jazz arrangements.
5. I started writing again. Act one of the screenplay I’m working on (in collaboration with my brother) has proved challenging. We’ve written the entire screenplay to the end (first draft), but I keep coming back to the beginning as it’s just not there yet. This week I felt like I’m finally starting to crack it. Maybe getting Christmas out of the way was just what was needed

Despite an increasingly busy schedule I managed to get to work on the screenplay I’m working on today, for the first time in 2012. It feels good to be back in the writing mode.

I got this idea via the brilliant James Whatley (whom I finally got to meet at the end of last year - James delivered a wonderfully informative and entertaining talk for the APA Digital Breakfast that I organise).

I want to try and capture some of the creative things happening in my life in this Tumblr blog. So here goes the first of a (hopefully) ongoing series.

1. I read the script for the movie Se7en. I’m currently writing a script of my own in collaboration with my brother, so this is part research for that. Have you ever seen this film? Man it’s heavy going. I’ve only seen it once, must be over ten years ago, and I’d forgotten how good the writing is. Brilliant characterisation. 
2. I watched this lecture by John Cleese on Creativity. This week I was asked by one of my publishing clients to present a 90 minute seminar on digital creativity in February. Fantastic, one of my favourite subjects. Doing some research I found this video, which is inspirational for anyone wanting to tap their inner creative well. Someone I follow on Twitter had linked to a shorter video by John Cleese from about ten years later (also good), but the 1991 version is well worth the extra. I’m particularly struck by the idea of creating a boundary of space and time in which to be creative, and the importance of being playful. 
3. I finally got to see the Doctor Who Christmas Special. I wished I’d watched this at Christmas, it was the most festive one yet. And it featured Bill Bailey. Did I ever mention I was in a band with Bill Bailey?
4. I listened to Salome by Richard Strauss (availble on Spotify in a version by Giuseppe Sinopli and the Berlin Opera). One of my best Christmas presents was The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, a brilliant (and highly readable) account of 20th century classical music. It inspired me to go listen to the slithering chromaticisms of Strauss’s sensational opera.
5. I started reading Loving by Henry Green. I first heard about Green in an essay by Terry Southern (a counter cultural hero, he was one of the writers on Dr Strangelove amongst other things). Southern called Green ‘a writer’s writer’ and I can see why. He has a unique voice, and what John Updike called ‘a perilous luminous fullness’, which you can’t argue with really.