April's End

No idea where this month's gone one minute it was there then the next it's ending and I wanted to be gone by now but cannot force events and the city is beginning to seem stale there's more bad news in everything we read and who wants to hang around for the great depression summer and more importantly there are projects to complete so the nests can be feathered and my head is so free of clutter and bullshit it's as if I've awoken from a long and tedious coma. Popped into the cinema the other night and took in State of Play and it's nowhere near as good as the original television series then my boy wanted to see Wolverine X-Men Origins but that might have to keep for another weekend when his sister's away because there's no way on earth she's watching that and I'm keen to see the South African director Gavin Hood's progression from Tsotsi to the Wolverine blockbuster and the Cannes season is upon us plus my friends in Madibaland are in various stages of post production and the melting pot of creativity is on the boil for real.
One mid morning we make our way across the hill to a street in Muswell Hill and to the charming house and offices of what's known in the trade as a design consultant. The lady of the house who's also the managing director offers us coffee and we are here to get a professional take on what a logo for hardlabour films should look like. Everywhere I go I got people I know who've got people they know so goes Dr. Dre's The Watcher and that's true in this situation someone's accountant will suggest someone good they know and my mate's wife suggested this brilliantly talented company around the corner and creating an identity for creative work seems the thing to do and no matter how many whacky ideas one has, there are people trained to calm down excessive enthusiasm and are the difference between kitsch and great design the difference between being remembered in a crowd and being seen as part of the crowd.

So when did you think this up? Ages ago but thought we'd do our day jobs through one entity as well and be creative behind a label. She thinks we have personality so we're half way there and she can help put images to who we are it's very important to be subtle, design works in subliminal ways you can't even imagine do you know the fedex symbol? What's so special about it? The arrow that's been worked in between the d and the e which gives a feeling of direct swift delivery. We say like thousands we'll be taking a project to Cannes and she'll work to this deadline and remember to prepare it's unbelievable how many people forget to prepare for meetings and think they can wing it people aren't stupid they can tell when you know nothing. About the design, what did you have in mind. I ask her what she thinks of when she hears the words hard labour. It's not jail or cracking limestone and I guess she gets it. It's about giving birth to great ideas.

I've got enough time to head back home and finish a new pitch before I have to get on a train and head over to the little people and it's not a weekend so travel out of town stresses me out but I have to get to a school concert because he's playing the piano tonight and it'd be good to see him at it and to show the house masters and teachers that he wasn't adopted from some Malawian village. The trains are full of out of town commuters heading back to Reading and beyond and not having left their jobs in the office they are speaking at top volumes about some deal or some sales figures and I really do hate other people's jobs and yes jobs aren't supposed to be fun they're supposed to be jobs well bollocks to that. So I turn up the volume on the ipod speakers and lose myself in a vivaldi rendition which I know will take me to the west country as yellow fields roll by outside my train window and I watch the watch because I can't afford to be late for these gigs.

I've got you a ticket he'd said earlier in the week great what time do you finish school around four and then he's got piano practice straight after and she's got sax straight after and I might be able to squeeze in dinner before his concert practice and that's what we do we meet for dinner in the usual place and he attacks it so he can get back to school and learn the order and the movements and ofcourse she's not going she's heard that piece a thousand times before she'd rather work on her homework which is not for another two weeks and no they don't have my elastic discipline. He runs off to school so he can be directed by sixth formers and hang out with his mates after wolfing down a meal and no she won't eat not even a green tea. She checks out my ipod and hates most of what's on it but she moves across the applications and menus with impressive speed and shows me ways of listening to the gizmo I never knew existed and hands the whole thing back with a dismissive there you are dad go and listen to your music with your new found powers. So I make a mental note to try out the Killers this band she likes and she's also into Coldplay especially that sentimental tune Fix You and I remember having that in my previous possessions but don't let on that I know that tune because all children should be allowed to think they know one or two things their parents don't know. I've decided, she tells me like some great secret, I want to write songs for other people it's still writing but I want to start off writing songs that are like stories and what can I do but encourage any ambition any aspiration and hope she gets lucky. Over at the school an hour or so later sixth formers are trying to MC their house concert and it's heartwarming to see them blush through their would-be comic turns and then he's introduced and walks onto the stage hand in pocket owning his space and nods to the sound manager way above the audience and the accompanying music fills the small space and he does his stuff on the piano and his mates scream his name like he's Ray Charles and although every parent thinks their children are geniuses I believe mine are. Not a bad train journey back to wet and windy London too.