​Well, I hear you say, where the hell did January go? So often I have heard people repeat the words, "I'll be glad when January is out of the way. It always drags." People actually want time to go fast. Why? What is the reason? Is it the post-Christmas Blues? The thought that the New Year isn't living up to expectations? Because it's so cold? I am not sure. This is all a mystery to me. Personally, I WANT January to feel long. In fact, I want every month to feel long. I want every day to feel long, every bloody minute and second. I want to live and I WANT it to feel like it's dragging, thank you very much. That's not to say I want life to be dull, boring and tedious, like one long dragged out snooze fest, but I want to be able to look back one day and go, "Wow, life is long", as opposed to, "Wow, that whizzed by". At the same time, this doesn't mean I want my time cramming full with activity, that nauseating "living my best life" feeling that you are only living if you are jet setting abroad every few days, leaping on to moving objects, jumping into water, taking selfies in front of landmarks, or standing on balconies sipping cocktails that actually taste like piss. That is worse. I like so called mundanely, and I want to spend as much time as possible on such everyday activities as sitting and reading, going for walks, looking round charity shops, working on my books, spending time with my family, seeing a friend. The so called mundane is life.
  So I am baffled whenever I hear people happy with the fact that a full month has passed by quickly. "February just needs to be done with now and we'll be into March." They yearn for spring I guess, but then in spring they seem to yearn even more for the summer, for the scorching weather we only get for about two months in England, and which most people complain about when it's here anyway. You can hear them sighing and huffing, saying they're sweating all over like pigs and can't get comfortable. Sleepless nights and clammy bollocks. "Roll on the cooler weather," they say. Then when it's autumn, the most beautiful season in my view, they grind their teeth and say, "Ooh, it'll soon be winter." In winter, "God it's so cold, roll on spring." And so on.... 

​   Rather than "living it large" and all that toss, I've had an interesting January, interesting to me at least. Some will find it tedious, of course, but to me it's been a nice start to the year. I found the New Year brought in renewed interest in my music (Greece is now a Dodson and Fogg red zone). I released a new Dodson and Fogg set, a 7 track albumy thing called AN EYE ON THE MOON. You can either DL (cool speak for download, to save time I suppose, even though I have now spent more time explaining what DL is and could have just put download in the first place and saved myself a few lines of waffle) from bandcamp or get a CD from my site. There is also a CD with signed art prints by myself. I had a lot of fun working on the album/long EP (I will keep referring to it as an album to save time OK?), even though it was recorded very speedily. Music is cathartic for me, both writing it and playing it, and these days it seems to come out in bursts. Every three or four months I will have this overwhelming urge to create, to make music, to get my thoughts out in song, in a direct and straight forward way. I know when it's time because I start to feel itchy, restlesss, muddled. As soon as it's done I feel back to normal, and get satisfaction from hearing the mixes and being as happy with them as I can be. Then people take the time to buy the music, stream it on my bandcamp, or get a CD maybe. My dad is always the first guy to give me feedback, as ever an encouraging fellow and good friend, and then it's the collectors or people who appreciate my work who show interest. It's moving for me to think someone would take the time to buy a CD or download, because so much soul and heart goes into the songs. I thank everyone who gets my music and takes it seriously. 

​   On top of this, I also released a Sharon Stone film and TV guide which goes into all her credits. That was a fun book to do. I have also been talking to James Woods again every week for our project - more of that later - and I have to say he is such a nice guy. What else? Oh yes, I spoke to the writer Paul Auster for a book I am doing on two films he made in the 1990s with Wayne Wang, Blue in the Face and Smoke. I am writing a wee study on them, and Paul was nice enough to chat to me for a couple of hours and continues to be open for help on emails. I am reading his novels like a beast lately, so it's thrilling to be in touch with him. The added bonus is that he's such a nice fella too.
   Another nice thing I should mention. A young lady emailed me saying Cutey and the Soifaguard is her favourite book (I wrote the novel in 2008, and then recorded an audiobook version with the late Rik Mayall in 2010, who narrated it). She also told me she had done some fan art of two of the characters in the book, The Wisdom Twins. "I drew these two lovely bastards", she said. You will see the lovely artwork below.

​   I don't think there is much else to write. January was a good month for work, I also had some nice times out with my family, and the five cats continued to torment me. Other than these details, that seems to be it for January 2022. Roll on February, which I hope drags on and on and feels as long as a year rather than a month.
   (Added thought: I was out for a walk yesterday and saw two shoes up in a tree. Why do people throw shoes in trees? Does anyone know? Please get in touch if so.)
 
Email me if you feel like it: wisdomtwinsbooks@hotmail.com

I'm a film geek. No, a film obsessive. There are plenty of us, movie addicts, but I just happen to be one who feels the need to write about my love of cinema in books and articles. I devote weeks to writing about the work of a particular actor or director, sometimes months on one film. I love films. Always have, always will. They are the ultimate art form. They combine all the others to make the most complete and all consuming experience. When not making music or spending time with my family, it's all about films.  
   As young people, we tend to get into films based on who's in the film in question, and only when we are a little older do we start to recognise films for their creator, their writer, their director. But in getting into cinema via an actor's filmography, especially one with a long and rich one, we get to experience all the great visionaries along the way. In our love affairs with the stars, we end up sampling the best of what the movies have to offer.
   I have been making movie lists and guides for years, since I was a boy in fact, only now I put these thoughts, theories and views into book form. One of my favourite things to do as a kid was to list my favourite actors, and then provide a summary of why I liked them so much and a list of their essential movies. I've never done this as an adult. For some reason, a childish one perhaps, I feel like doing it now. So here are my 10 fave actors at the moment, with a list of essential credits for each.
 
1, JAMES WOODS
 
Holocaust, The Onion Field, Eyewitness, Videodrome, Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Promise, Best Seller, My Name is Bill W, Hard Way, Citizen Cohen, Casino, Killer: A Journal of Murder, The Specialist, Ghosts of Mississipi, Contact, Hercules, Another Day in Paradise, John Carpenter's Vampires, Any Given Sunday, The Virgin Suicides, Dirty Pictures, John Q, Pretty Persuasion, Rudy, This Girl's Life, ER, Shark, White House Down, Ray Donovan, Too Big to Fail, Dice, Simpsons, Family Guy.
 
2, GENE HACKMAN
 
Bonnie and Clyde, Riot, French Connection, I Never Sang for My Father, Poseidon Adventure, Prime Cut, Scarecrow, Conversation, Night Moves, Young Frankenstein, French Connection 2, Superman, Misunderstood, Twice in a Lifetime, No Way Out, Hoosiers, Another Woman, Mississippi Burning, Narrow Margin, Class Action, Unforgiven, The Firm, Quick and the Dead, Get Shorty, Crimson Tide, Birdcage, Absolute Power, Antz, Enemy of the State, Under Suspicion, Heartbreakers, Royal Tenenbaums, Runaway Jury.
 
3, MARCELLO MASTROIANNI
 
Lucky to be a Woman, Big Deal on Madonna Street, La Dolce Vita, Il Bel Antonio, La notte, L'assassino, Divorce Italian Style, 8 1/2, The Organizer, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, Marriage Italian Style, Pizza Triangle, A Slightly Pregnant Man, La Grande Bouffe, Don't Touch the White Woman, Todo Modo, A Special Day, Bye Bye Monkey, The Terrace, City of Women, Ghosts of Love, La Nuit de Varennes, Henry IV, General of the Dead Army, Maccheroni, Beekeeper, GInger and Fred, Dark Eyes, Intervista, Splendor, What Time Is It?, Everybody's Fine, Un Deux Trois Soleil, Pret a Porter, 101 Nights, Three Live and Only One Death, Voyage to the Beginning of the World
 
4, MICHEL PICCOLI
 
Contempt, Diary of a Chambermaid, Les Creatures, Young Girls of Rochefort, Belle De Jour, Benjamin, La Chamade, Dillinger is Dead, Milky Way, Things of Life, Max and the Junkmen, Liza, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Wedding in Blood, Woman in Blue, La Grande Bouffe, Themroc, Don't Touch the White Woman, Vincent Francois Paul and the Others, Phantom of Liberty, A Leap in the Dark, Strange Affair, Passion, Passerby, General of the Dead Army, Dangerous Moves, Death in a French Garden, Le Paltoquet, May Fools, Walking a Tightrope, La Belle Noiseuse, 101 Nights, Party, Travelling Companion, Paris Timbuktu, I'm Going Home, Belle Toujours, Gardens in Autumn, Boxes, We Have a Pope, Les Toits de Paris, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.
 
5, JACK NICHOLSON
 
The Raven, Shooting, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, King of Marvin Gardens, A Safe Place, Carnal Knowledge, Last Detail, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Tommy, The Passenger, The Shining, Reds, Postman Always Rings Twice, Terms of Endearment, Batman, Ironweed, A Few Good Men, Wolf, Mars Attacks, As Good As It Gets, Blood and Wine, The Pledge, About Schmidt, Something's Gotta Give, The Departed.
 
6, CATHERINE DENEUVE
 
Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Repulsion, Creatures, Young Girls of Rochefort, Belle De Jour, La Chamade, Benjamin, Donkey Skin, April Fools, Mississippi Mermaid, Tristana, Liza, Un Flic, A Slightly Pregnant Man, Don't Touch the White Woman, Lovers Like Us, Last Metro, Choice of Arms, Hotel America, The Hunger, Le Bon Plaisir, A Strange Place to Meet, Indochine, My Favourite Season, 101 Nights, The Convent, Thieves, Place Vendome, Time Regained, Dancer in the Dark, East West, I'm Going Home, 8 Women, A Talking Picture, Persepolis, A Christmas Tale, Potiche, On My Way, Brand New Testament, The Midwife, The Truth.
 
7, SOPHIA LOREN
 
Too Bad She's Bad, Lucky to be a Woman, Scandal in Sorrento, Pride and the Passion, Boy on a Dolphin, Legend of the Lost, Desire Under the Elms, The Key, Black Orchid, Two Women, Millionairess, Madame Sans Gene, Boccaccio 70, Five Miles to Midnight, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, Marriage Italian Style, Arabesque, A Countess from Hong Kong, More Than A Miracle, Man of La Mancha, Voyage, A Special Day, Blood Feud, Pret A Porter, Between Strangers, Nine, Lives of the Saints, The Life Ahead.
 
8, SHARON STONE
 
Deadly Blessing, Stardust Memories, Total Recall, Year of the Gun, Scissors, Basic Instinct, Specialist, Intersection, Casino, Quick and the Dead, Last Dance, Diabolique, The Mighty, The Muse, Gloria, Antz, Sphere, Simpatico, Broken Flowers, Bobby, Alpha Dog, When A Man Falls, Huff, 5 Dollars A Day, Lovelace, Fading Gigolo, All I Wish, Ratched, Life on the Line, New Pope, Agent X, Mosaic.
 
9, ROBERT DE NIRO
 
Greetings, Hi Mom, Mean Streets, Bang the Drum Slowly, Godfather 2, Taxi Driver, 1900, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, King of Comedy, Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, Untouchables, Midnight Run, Jacknife, Goodfellas, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Casino, Heat, This Boy's Life, Wag the Dog, Jackie Brown, Analyze This, Meet the Parents, Being Flynn, Everybody's Fine, The Irishman, What Just Happened.
 
10, GERARD DEPARDIEU
 
Nathalie Granger, Going Places, Vincent Francois Paul and the Others, 1900, Barocco, Maitresse, Last Woman, Get Out Your handkerchiefs, Buffet Froid, Bye Bye Monkey, Last Metro, My American Uncle, Loulou, Choice of Arms, Woman Next Door, Return of Martin Guerre, Danton, Police, Jean De Florette, Tenue de Soiree, Under the Sun of Satan, A Strange Place to Meet, Too Beautiful For You, Camille Claudel, Green Card, Cyrano de Bergerac, Merci La Vie, Germinal, Elisa, Secret Agent, Count of Monte Cristo, Between Strangers, How Much Do You Love Me?, Potiche, Bellamy, Mammuth, Life of Pi, Welcome to New York, Valley of Love. 

​And so, here we are. Another year is under way, and we are all getting used to the idea of another 12 month period with COVID taking up all the headlines, of this not so new virus being on the lips of everyone you pass (muffled as their conversations are beneath their masks), affecting everything we do in our lives - that is, if we are leaving the house. Staying in is OK. You can act like the world is the same as it was pre-March 2020. You can pretend that you don't have to stick a mask on as soon as you go into a shop, even if you're the only guy in there. If you stay in, as I do a lot with my work, you can flamboyantly stride about the place, mask-free, coughing arrogantly into the air, sneezing even, without fear of crosses appearing from the pockets of those in close proximity, who then hiss and curse you. You can even show off your nose and mouth and smile openly without fear of being wrestled to the ground by a security guard. I am being facetious of course, but no one can deny the hysteria.  
   Yesterday I went to Leeds centre with my dad. Everyone was masked, indoors and out. Even the young busker was singing from beneath a mask. Toilets were closed, benches had been taken away, and the cafe we did find open didn't give out plates or trays for fear of COVID infection. Signs in shop doorways said "No mask, no entry." And some of them really meant it. So you head in, strapping up your face. If you take the mask off even for a second, just so you can take a breather in the corner, believe me, you'll be on CCTV and they'll find out you dared to remove it. My dad and I couldn't help but feel that, even though these restrictions had been applied for the good of the people, to save lives and look out for our fellow man, there seemed to be no humanity, or very little at least. The effects of COVID are contradictory. In theory they should have made the world kinder, but it's actually become more brutal and cold. It makes one think of a man signing a petition against animal cruelty, who then goes out and hits a badger with a hammer... or something like that. 
   Now, the flippant part of my piece is over. In truth, COVID is still a concern. Everyone is catching it now and while most of us are getting fluey, some are still getting seriously ill, others sadly dying. It's catchier than it's ever been. Everyone it seems is bound to get it, at least in some form or other. What scares most is the fact that it's pot luck how bad you get it, and what the effects will be down the line. The best you can do is stay as safe as you can, to use your rational mind - if you have one that is. I feel to be a COVID denier is to be in denial of reality and life itself, but to be a COVID doom monger is to rob us all of the joy of existence. The healthiest mode, I think, is somewhere in the middle. Carry on living, but be cautious, and also respect the views of others. For me personally, life is continuing as ever before. I see the people I usually see (the ones I can of course, for there are some I'd like to see but can't for various reasons), I go out occasionally, but happily spend most of my time at home, writing, emailing friends and associates, reading, listening to music, watching films, recording music, seeing to my work, spending time with my family. As a man very used to what others have called a "lockdown life", perhaps I am not the ideal person to talk about the difficulties of the COVID era, two years and counting. Selfishly, in some ways my own life hasn't changed at all, even though I feel for others, those who've lost their livelihoods, their loved ones, their lives. As much as the restrictions may frustrate you, think of all those people and what they have been through. That, at the end of the day, puts it all into perspective.
   If what I have written here seems paradoxical, that's because it is. Nothing is black and white, and my views of the COVID era are grey, as many others are. But I feel what happens in the next few months will be vital. Will we learn to live with COVID in 2022? And what will living with COVID mean? We shall see. We cannot forget that so many people have died of this strange virus, and the fact that some have experienced true horror. And as if this isn't bad enough, it now turns out we have been openly mocked by those in charge, and at the height of COVID restrictions too. When people were isolating alone, losing their minds, when they couldn't spend time with loves ones, were saying goodbye to their beloved relatives, or watching from a distance in the graveyards as coffins were lowered into the earth, Boris and his Eton educated cronies were supping expensive wine and nibbling cheese in number 10's expansive garden. It sickens me to my stomach. There is no option now. I feel we need to get the hay haired loon out and let someone else have a go, someone with empathy, someone with thought for others, but also someone who understands life, can see things from another perspective, has some knowledge of the struggles people endure out there in the real world.  In other words, anyone but Boris Johnson.
   So yes, another year begins, or grinds awkwardly into gear at least, rusty cogged and creaking wearily. For me in my daily life, it will be like last year, and the year before, and the year before that. I will write, record music and do the things I enjoy. Yet I will not be in denial, and will feel and fear for others. I'm OK, but what of the world outside my cosy, safe environment?
   Will we ever see the return of the world of old? I believe this year we will find out.