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Have to say I like the sound of 2012. It has a nice, round ring to it. And I’m ignoring the Mayans. Despite all the doom headlines and endless projections for despair I’m feeling optimistic about this year and planning a few resolutions which include cycling more, driving less. I also want to learn to play a musical instrument. Its never too late! And I want to write that book that has been promising to emerge for so many years but is still in gestation. If I say them out loud I may have to fulfill them.
I’ve just spent the last two weeks without TV or a computer and that also reminded me that while I love both it is great to withdraw and think. Silence has a profound value. And perhaps the noise of our digital age can allow us to avoid silence too easily. Coming back into work and listening again I feel I listen better; hear radio more carefully and watch TV more discerningly. Less is more.
My January deadlines include finishing our radio series ‘Death of an Empire’ the story of modern Russia. I was intending to do it before Christmas but the events in Russia were so fluid we decided to wait until the New Year and make it closer to transmission. 2011 was marked by some outstanding radio projects for us including High Fidelity - the century of recorded song - which is currently being repeated on RTE Radio 1 and the Made in Ireland series which goes out now the RTE Digital Radio. What comes next depends on lots of commissioning rounds which are in the air but we’re also engaged in a lot of digital media and online content training with booking right into April 2012. A sad end to 2011 was the news that Capital D, the RTE TV series we have worked with since 2006, has come to and end. We’ve had a lot of fun making features for the series and we’ll miss working with the Cap D people, Mary Butler and Ann-Marie O Callaghan. But things changes, evolve and re-shape and 2012 promises a whole new beginning. (Keep me to my commitments on bike, music and book!)