Becoming more like my heroes and Red 67

In last week I've been listening to a couple of really enjoyable plays on the BBC Radio iPlayer - they were about Raymond Chandler and collaborators of his (Film Directors Alfred Hitchcock and Bill Wilder).

The great Sid James

When you're young it's easy to have heroes but sadly we often feel at an impressionable age let down by when their feet of clay are revealed - as we get older I think we relish the humanity of these people,  and the fact that like us they have failings and frailties  this can offer us some belief that we too can be or do something.

People I admire are admired by me for a variety of reasons - partly for what they've done but also the way they remain themselves as they do them - Bruce Lacey and Billy Wilder are just two of the people I aspire to follow - mavericks to the end - and people who were not so single minded that they could be considered predictable or 'one trick ponies'.

Hitch -Predictable and unpredictable 

There are plenty of people around, not necessarily big figures, I won't embarrass them by putting their names down here but they remain inspirational to me now.

David Bowie was a true one-off and since his death this year is viewed as almost saintly but he said and did some spectacularly silly (and bad) things - proving how human he was.

Look at Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen - still trying new things as they approach old age(!)

Generally we don't need to work at the 'human side' of our lives - that comes as a default option but if we're lucky enough to find something we can focus on perhaps we can act as a something of a beacon to those who come after us (perhaps just a small one).

Red 67

Nice bright red London Pride (a nice pint too)..

Pride doesn't always come before a fall but too many and it might!

[see the latest rough cut of the ongoing project here]