A s you might be able to tell from the length of time between posts since I got back, it has been a pretty busy time. Hopefully that will translate into profitable, interesting and fun...January was always going to busy and it's lived up to that. Cinema Days was an interesting mix of films - a somewhat lukewarm list at first look, but which proved to at least have some minor gems in there. I was surprised to like The Blind Side so much and surprised to find Invictus (which after all had Mandela, sport and Clint Eastwood going for it) to be depressingly formulaic. MicMacs was endearing, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a great Swedish thriller and one I'd highly recommend(based on the best-selling novel) and though Battle for Terra 3D felt like a kiddies' version of Avatar, it was engaging enough.

The day after Cinema Days I was away to London to see an almost-finished version of Kick-Ass, the cinema adaptation of Mark Milar's comic. Fuller reviews have to wait until closer to release. However...as someone said, it's the sort of film that will have The Daily Mail and Fox News 'shitting kittens...' but when it's actually seen in its entirety it's a wonderfully executed guilty pleasure. Controversy over violence and language aside it's got a great story at its heart (kid tries to be a superhero and as well as inspiring others, pays the consequences).  Think Pulp Fiction meets Clerks meets John Woo. I fully expect it to feature on my Top 5 films of the year.

Right after getting back from LeicesteR and London I was into some new design work for a film DVD/film distributor and which based on my experiences so far  - and their very positive reaction - should prove fun and rewarding over the months to come.   Equally the PEACE Fund auctions go on, so I encourage you to visit (and spread word about) the various items up there which are beiNG sold to raise money to help with coping with the horrendous situation out there. (See previous blog post for more info).

And so, into February... where does the year go?

U sually people make resolutions in the dying days of a year - and all too often break them in the opening moments of the new. It's only human... we aspire to greatness and then inevitably stumble a bit as we lurch towards them down the road of good intentions. I really didn't make any at the turn of 2009, in fact I never even really thought about making them or not. Barely crossed what passes for my mind. Perhaps I was too busy digging out snow-drifts, making the most of the out-of-the-UK down-time or somehow finding I was being more frightingly domesticated in a month than I am for the other days of the year entirely. Seriously, most of the time I can burn water. If I could find the kettle. What's a kettle?

But as January ticks through, I guess I am thinking more about what I am doing, what I should be doing and what I should be doing next. Maybe even after that. Oh, it's not as if I don't have enough to do on the practical side: before the end of the month there's far too many things to sort through and all of them howling for my attention and bellowing at the consequences if I don't put them at the top of the list.

This year I'll be 42. (Real 'meaning of life' territory, ya think?). But 30 came and went without any of the prophesised fanfare and 40 was a mere blip on the radar until it became the blip on the machine at LGI. Then 2009 was a year of constant transition, I guess... near dirt-naps being very effective wake-up calls.

But what should 2010 be? What do I need and want out of it in the long run? The frustrating answer is I'm not sure. I'm used to making myself set small goals as I find even minor accomplishments keep up the momentum and lead to bigger ones. Finishing an article, tidying something, getting something posted out in the mail or being able to mentally tick something off a list means I can go to bed and think the day wasn't entirely wasted. Little victories. But what of the long game?

Sure, there's that novel to keep writing/start again (if Steve can manage five or more and sell the film rights to Europe, surely I can manage one and get an edorsement from Channel Five?); I'd like to be able to spend more time socialising outside of four very familiar walls which somehow contain more of my flotsam and jetsam than 1/4 of a relative mansion once did; I'd like to earn the kind of money that my work IS actually worth-  1/2 would be acceptable - or be acknowledged more vigorously when it's often done as a favour.

I guess as we get older that we spot that pragmatic dividing line between making stuff happen for ourselves and merely relying on others to not get in the way- that so much of our lives revolves around the decisions that others make (or don't), that we might blink and miss the things we need to make happen ourselves, if only we had the energy and time at the end of the day. We need to remind ourselves that bad things happen but really good things happen too, to recognise them and not to forget to smile and breathe out a bit when they do.

So technically, I actually DO know where I need to be by the end of the year... better financially, more even social life, knowing if I can balance my own needs and wants in all aspects of life with those of others. Effectively, it's just the need for a few more street signs, some reliable directions from the people I come across who are interested in the same route...and, yes, considerable gas money for the fuel it'll take.

I'm just not sure God's quite the reliable co-pilot I'm always hearing about.

W ell, I'm back from Iowa and I've traded one lot of snow for another. Usually when I arrive back in the UK, it's raining, but it's rare that the climate is so similar.

I guess I should have been a tad more specific when I hoped for a White Christmas... (the careless vagueness in wish has proven the same as saying 'More David Tennant on the telly would be okay this year...') But weather-wise, though there's still snow on the ground in both countries, the English kind is infinitely more depressing.

The snow and ice in America might be biting cold, the kind that stops the feeling in your hands minutes before you notice it, but it feels clean and fresh. England on the other hand is just damp, miserable, grey mass. If Iowegian landscapes are either christmas card perfect or as brittle and sharp as a cleanly-cut knife, then the Leeds variety is like being slowly smothered by an apathetic, hungover and deeply mottled penguin.

Ironically after four weeks of TRULY severe weather, it was the unsalted and ungriited pavements in Horsforth that nearly did me in. The local council, like many, have almost (shamefully) run out and so it's every person and A&E department for themselves. No mail, fewer buses and trains... all after a few inches of snow and ice. Iowa had twenty inches in a day and still the mail got through. Doesn't it make you proud?

I'm not sure when I'll be back in Iowa. It will largely depend on finances and work. However there's potential to get Jilly over here, maybe around the time of her birthday, so we'll see how things go in the next few months.

But life goes on. Despite feeling as out-of-it as I always do after a long trip away, there's much to be done. Impact should go to bed on Friday (though it will most likely be Monday), I have to sort details for next week's Cinema Days event that I'm attending; I should be doing some DVD design work shortly and then there's my accounts-filing on which to ruminate. In short, January will be a busy month.

Something, something Dark Side....

Simon Hopkinson and a few of us will be taking part in the Project 365 Initiative where we'll all be posting a photo each day for the next year - circumstances permitting. As there are a few hiccups with getting the formal site up, I've started by posting my pix on a new page of my own site, which you can find here: http://john-mosby-media.blogspot.com/

(On  the photo page you can find a caption for the photo and more info by clicking each DATE rather than the picture itself).


Like most of the TGTD pages, there'll be some more tweaks around here over the next week, but it's a start.

W ell, here in Iowa, it's not even 6:00pm, but back home in Leeds it's rapidly approaching the end of a day, week, month, year and decade. It's been a mixed year in many ways...


Certainly, it was a distinct personal improvement over 2008. A year ago I was here in Iowa again, but very much still feeling the effects of the brain-splodey and hospital stay. I hadn't felt older when I hit 40, but I've kinda felt my age over the last twelve months or so.

Professionally, it's been more of the same: a huge amount of interesting and rewarding work, though hardly a reflecting income to show for it. However, once again it's taken me to London, Los Angeles and many points inbetween. Impact is still going, Verbatim's fallen by the wayside for the moment. I've also started the ThereGoesTheDay Store with a full rnage of t-shirts (link at the top of the blog page!) and hope to expand that out in the months to come.

The last six months has been quite quiet on the Highlander front, but there may be more news to come on that soon. It usually manages to keep me on my toes.

Outside the weather is freezing. It all looks picture postcard, but more than 5 minutes out without gloves and you start to feel the severe chill on any expose flesh. Fortunately I have the swishy coat and the clompy boots to keep me safe.

After ten years of knowing each other, Jilly and I finally got together. The geography factor means not the ideal situation and there's a huge amount of time, financial and other factors that come into play with that, so we're taking it one step ata time. Unfortunately, Jilly's ende dup working more hours than she wanted to over the holidays as well as handling a nasty cold, so I'm not sure the NYE celebrations will be particularly loud or intense. Right now I'm just letting her sleep.

I'm not sure of what of 2010 will bring, personally or professionally. The last year's felt like one of transition on all levels and I get the feeling that's a work in progress and will continue.  So, in the next few days watch out for some visual tweaks to this whole TGTD blog site and I'll also be taking part in the Project 365 Initiative - posting a photo every single day for a year. I'll be providing a link to that an to my own expanding photography part of the blog in the next day or so.

So, for the moment, that's it. Exit stage right, 2009. 2010, we're ready for your close up.

Try not to screw up your lines.