Now where was I? I’ve left off blogging for so many months. You may remember my Eating My Way Down Goldhawk Road. Every month, I visited a restaurant on my home street, methodically working my way along. The trouble was, I came across an African restaurant and I couldn’t find a companion who liked African food or was willing to try it. So the blogging came to a halt.
Also, I started on the Chico Chica story. This started out as a record of our musical development and was intended for PR purposes, so giving journalists some background information on the three musicians who make up the group as well as describing the creative process that culminated in Mélangerie, the debut album. But it grew and grew and came to dominate my time and thoughts. Iy has turned into a memoir of my childhood and I still haven’t finished. Christmas 2011 was the deadline I gave myself. I have sent the incomplete draft to a couple of friends and told them to read it with a big marker pen and cross out anything dull or foolish.
When complete, I will sell it as an e-book, give it away to professional journalists and serialise on this blog. For now, I would like to draw your attention to the Chico Chica Christmas card to the world in the form of a sequence of photos taken throughout 2011, shown in chronological order, and set to the soundtrack of the album’s opening song: C’est Ta Chanson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuWwapAyyek
Harder To Hide, the second song, can be heard here (video to follow):
http://soundcloud.com/chico-chica/02-harder-to-hide
One last thing before I wish everyone a happy Christmas – here is a list of the books I read in 2011. All are by Joseph Conrad unless otherwise stated, Some of the stories listed are short stories. These have been compiled in different ways so I have listed the stories rather than the books.
Lord Jim
Youth
Heart of Darkness
The End of the Tether
Nigger of The Narcissus
Typhoon
The Shadow Line
An Outcast of the Islands
Heart of Darkness (again)
Karain, A Memory
The Return
The Brute
The Informers
An Outpost Of Progress
The Idiots
The Lagoon
Almayer’s Folly
Nostromo
The Secret Agent
Under Western Eyes
The Dual
Gaspar Ruiz
The Anarchist
Il Conte
Victory
A Mirror Of The Sea
A Personal Record
A Smile Of Fortune
Rime of the Ancient, Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Secret Sharer
Freya Of The Seven Isles
Amy Foster
Falk
Tomorrow
Typhoon (again)
The Rescue
In The Blood, Andrew Motion
Goodbye To All That, Robert Graves
For the first time in my life, I decided to devote an entire year to one author. I read them more or less in the order they were published. I didn’t get round to reading Chance. I read this a few years ago but cannot remember much about it which is not a good sign. Writing my memoir took hold of me towards the end of the year. The last two books are memoirs and I used them as models for my own. I will be writing more on Conrad later.
Merry Christmas.
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