4th November 2012
As 2012 draws to a close I realise this manifesto needs a small update. The dream of moving to New York seems a lot further away than it did at the beginning of the year, but it is still a dream, and I shall continue to work towards it. I have certainly achieved my goal of writing (although not enough screenplays or competition entries) but do wish I had danced more. World peace is sadly further away also, with the crisis in Syria (though I haven’t exactly been in a position to work towards solving that)…let’s just hope against hope that America makes the right decision on Tuesday.
All in all, 2012 has just been another year, some achievements and some disappointments, some great highs and some horrible lows…but then it wouldn’t be this wonderful life without them, would it?
I’ll be back in early 2013 to update the manifesto for 2013…bring it.
4th January 2012
I currently live in the top floor flat of a beautiful townhouse in West London, a stone’s throw away from Portobello Road and Notting Hill. I am working, I have friends. Life is pretty bloody amazing. So of course I want to throw it all away and move to New York where I know few people and would probably only be able to afford to live in the Bronx. If home is where the heart is then home = 3464 miles from anywhere I have ever lived.
This is the story of my efforts to make it there, to coin a phrase. In the last few years I have spent a bit of time in the city that never sleeps and each visit offers more incentive, it’s just harder to move there nowadays than it has ever been.
In true manifesto style I will set out my aims for 2012:
- Write
- Move to New York
- Dance
- Achieve world peace.
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the title of this blog is reputedly what Dylan Thomas said he had drunk just before he collapsed into the gutter and died outside the White Horse pub in Greenwich Village, NY. I know enough alcoholics to admit that this is neither funny nor clever, and despite my Scottish and Irish heritage I am sadly unable to drink whisky due to an overly emphatic Burns night a few years back (though 18 margaritas wouldn’t go amiss) but it does allow me to lead in to his other great quote:
‘Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’
Amen to that.