The Bay Area tape culture of the 1960s had some obvious spin-offs. Terry Riley and the bass-player of the Grateful Dead � Phil Lesh � co-owned the tape recorder used to start the seminal Min works like Its Gonna Rain. There is extensive used of tape looping and mixing in the Dead masterpiece, Anthem For the Sun.

I was thinking a bit about the idea that the punk movement was an unselfconscious result of Situationism. One of the episodes I am trying to get some perspective on is the eruption of sculpture in the late 1960s at St Martins in London where Anthony Caro taught. AC was/is worldclass and in NYC he was seen as the person who �did� sculpture on a scale and in line with the AbsEx � in a way which was not true of work in the USA. Three of his pupils are now pretty visible - Gilbert and George and Richard Long (the list could be longer). Because their work was so radical it quickly became visible. I wrote about a week ago about G&G exhibition of late 1970s work at the Serpentine � it would be the easiest thing in the world tie that in with all kinds of contemporary cultural events and ideas - I am sure the catalogue does just that.

I have a tape made by R Long which I bought at the ICA about 5 years ago � where he explains his thinking � and James bought me a catalogue for Christmas about that time. But the big point would be that Longs work is rooted in walking through the landscape � and you can follow that idea back through the Situationists via Benjamin to Baudelaire as far as urban walking is concerned with/without a purpose.

The list has come up with:

�Hey! Re: Sex Pistols and Situationism: anybody read Greil Marcus' "Lipstick Traces?" The entire book is about the Pistols and Situationism. He did extensive research, and, I would say, it's the definitive document on the subject.

Bye, Mary�

I have also found a Chapter in a Simon Frith book about the impact of artskools on music in the UK which goes into this.

James found Cambridge peverse and stimulating. Got into an argument with the Director of Studies over the futility of war � was it feasible for the Poles facing the Nazis in 1939 to have adopted Ghandi�s passive resistance approach?

I found:

Music for Changes � the piece Cage did immediately after 16 Dances in 1951 � a 1956 recording from Germany � my immediate reaction is how it seems to imply 4 min 33 secs and also that it confers a blessing on where I am going with Brown�s 25 pages.

USA � Arditti String Quartet miracle of a CD for less than �10. The piece Lamont Young did before the String Trio � he must have been about 21 when it was done � is up against very Feldman like late Cage. Also there is some Feldman from about the same time as Music for Changes. Gets a billion stars from me.

A CD single by a pupil of Goehr

Wilfred Mellors on the history of Sonata Form 2nd hand � chatted to the bookseller about WM � he had heard him lecture (aged 92) last week at Dartington.

I found but didnt buy a thick book on the avantgarde in NYC - just not joined up enough for me and it stops before things get really interesting. I also nearly bought a Pollock bio which speculates that the meal episode was because P knew he couldn't take drip painting further.

James went on to some serious partying.