I’ve spent the past few weeks since returning from Chicago (has it been that long already?) trying to put things in place for 2009 and figure out exactly what I’m going to be focusing my energies on. Among other things, I’m dreaming up a poetry programme for schools in Camden, a soon to be publicised programme for young poets at the Barbican, and another residency at Bishop Justus (I’m already fulfilling a residency at Morpeth School in Bethnal Green until June/July). I’m also safeguarding time in my schedule for writing– I’m determined to push forward with the manuscript for my next collection over the next few months, and I’m tying down dates for a collaborative project with a choreographer that should be a really interesting opportunity to experiment and explore creative process through different art forms.
Working through all of the planning and negotiation, I’m just about getting to the point at which I can move out of management mode and get back to creating things, editing and feeding back on other people’s work, and generally getting things done. And through it all, I’m reminded that, with all of the important, exciting things that I’m focusing on, it’s far too easy to forget the fun stuff. So to stave off the onset of workaholism and general grown-up-head-down-and-always-at-work-ness, I’m drafting an “all work and no play makes Jacob a dull boy” list. So far it looks like:
1– see (more of) the world
2– get back behind the camera (and get those images up online)
3– become a world famous DJ
…
Number one’s pretty self-explanatory. I need to get out of the UK a bit more next year. And specifically for downtime and the sake of exploration– not just work. Although I’ve been lucky enough to travel to so many different places on the back of the things I’ve written, it’s only recently that I’ve made efforts to get a sense of the places I travel to. Otherwise it’s often the same cycle: get off the plane/train, head to the workshop/gig, do the work, (hit the hotel?), get back on the plane/train, recover. I’ve never been to Amsterdam, never been anywhere in Italy, never been to Egypt, haven’t seen much of the states beyond Chicago and New York, and although I’ve been to Barcelona, I’ve never seen Madrid. I think it’s about time I did something about that…
Number two on the list is photography. I’ve got a stack of images to process from the past few months of snapping, both digital and film. And I need to get a new photoblog running. Flickr’s great, but I like to be able to do my own thing. I’m leaning towards Wordpress, but Pixelpost works easiest out of the box. Xmas present to the self is a film scanner this year. Wait and see what I do with that…
Number three on the list is something I’ve been meaning to do for years, but was recently fired up by my Chicagoan host (’sup, Jessica!?) and the evening I spent guiding her through the contents of my iPod. I reckon I can put a few occasional mix mp3s together, and at the very least it’ll be fun playing with the tech that’s necessary to put something like that together.
Yes, there are a few other items on the fun list, but they’re not for you to know. Not yet, anyway. And I’m always open to suggestions…