Jason Thompson's Blog

Cat went dead

Once upon a time catty went dead. She had been kind as she let people drink her milk, even if she had later killed them. I had stroked her the day of her first killing. I'm proud of that. Any way I licked a small foals ear today. It then kicked callum in the face so I laughed. I then sang don't stop believing in the style of the Spanish / german elephant man. The half Spanish half german elephant man is female. The end.

Feeling Very Productive Again

This year got off to a slow start business-wise, but there has been a real turn around in the last couple if months, and with it has come a new boost of creative energy. Thank goodness.

Self employment is stressful at the best of times, but the last year or so have been very trying for various reasons, and my creative side took a back seat while I sorted out life and adjusted to a new and different way of living. One of the difficulties with being ones own boss is dealing with workflow - and with that cones cashflow. It's often famine or feast - with few times that I would classify as just nicely busy.

This month has seen the completion if The Minds Eye project which I developed and lead for Headway Gateshead and South Tyne. It was much more fun and successful than I could have hoped it would be, not just in terms of the self esteem the 11 participants got from it (all recovering from or living with brain injuries) but the final exhibition of photographs looks amazing. And one if the best results was the increased profile that Headway got for their organisation. see www.themindseyeproject.co.uk.

Also completed this week, after months of hard work, is the new and improved Samling Foundation web site. I've been involved with Samling for almost 10 years, and the new web site features detailed profiles if almost 300 of the worlds most talented young singers and musicians. Tomorrow night I'm at The Sage Gateshead helping Paul Hooper film another of the concerts for them, to join some of the many video clips he's already edited together from hours of concert footage.

Tonight though is a little treat - I've been invited to a special celebration at The Tyneside Cinema to commemorate 75 years of the cinema, and generally have a party with lots of other people who are connected to it, and the work of New Writing North. That will be fun - especially sing we have to arrive in costume typifying one of the decades from the last 75 years. 40s for me I think.

A couple of weeks ago I was taking some new photographs for a client who has a holiday cottage on Hadrian's Wall. It was a superb few days of photography (and wine and food and chat) and I must come back to this area soon to photograph more. Beautiful it was!! Took some photos of Sycamore Gap that I was pleased with. That made me want to watch Robin if Sherwood again, and as luck would have it I found a cheap copy last weekend when I was at the Newcastle Quayside market with the kids.

This week sees the start of several new projects, including a large ecommerce web site for a diamond and gold jewellery wholesaler, a beauty therapist web site, and updates to some existing clients sites that I'll enjoy doing. I feel like I'm in control if the business again - and also looking forward to a new business venture with Paul Slaughter and Enigma Interactive - more on that later.

And in amongst all that I've still managed to find time to have some great days with the kids, and some great time playing with the bands. Christine Curry and I are working on some new songs to perform in the summer, and I'm booked in to play solo at a couple of local music festivals in July too. Hurrah!

All I need now is for my left eye to be fixed. More on that saga another time..