Important article in the New York Times about the success in Haiti in halting the spread of HIV/AIDS � the first major award from the UN Global Fund � which is destind to be the largest ever fundraising and distribution operation ever in history. Details on the www.kwase-kwasa.org links and news pages.

Read some of the History of Sexuality Volume 3. Watched 30 mins of the Kirov doing Firebird on BBC2 � like a Klimt painting come to life. Talked to James about the wider impact of French 20C abstract thought.

I bought James a couple of presents � browsed one before I wrapped it but I am finding it hard to enclose the second � a historiographic review of the current state of scholarship on Hitler. So many gripping issues � in some ways a credible account of the Holocaust project remains the big topic in contemporary European history. At one extreme the development of Hitler�s views is clear enough � scholars think that they know most of what there is to know whilst there remains a mystery amidst curious facts about ultimate causes. Hitler and (the Jewish) Wittgenstein were in the same class as teenagers and they both liked to whistle operas, a Jewish physician treated Hilter�s mother during her last illness, Hitler had a big teenage crush on a Jewish girl � there were strange shifts in position in the political turbulence at the end of the FWW.

At the other end the timing and nature of his involvement in the initiation of the key operational phase � second half of 1941 � has been diagnosed and pieced together by assiduous scholarship despite the obvious care which many took to cover their tracks.

It�s the bits between the intention and the action that are still the centre of furious historical scholarship � as the additional sources from the former Soviet bloc are worked over. For example how was the complicity of the Wehrmacht secured � bearing in mind that the army was at the centre of resistance in the July 44 plot. What was the degree of active involvement of the business elite who seemed to eschew any kind of organised resistance? What was the true nature of strategic control in Nazi regime given the inconsistencies in Hitler�s leadership style � was Nazism a form of modernism (as Communism clearly was) or some kind of strange cocktail of ancient and modern? James said a couple of months ago that looking carefully at Hitler and Stalin it was much easier to see the psychopathy of the latter.

So motive is a mystery but the intention clearly emerges. The translation of the intention into collective action is the really turbulent bit in terms of giving an adequate account. It took about 25 years before historians even began to ask themselves these questions in anything like a manner which looks adequate to today�s standards of scholarship.

Yvonne and I went to Tecsos � tried to withdraw behind the veil of ignorance but other forms of practical reasoning are obviously more suited to these trying circumstances. Jake who is back from my sisters is in a sulk and refuses to play with the turkey. I bathed him which made him sulk.

Found a letter from Jesse Jackson (and friends in Congress) sent to George Bush at the end of last week which I posted on www.kwase-kwaza.org.

I am intrigued by what Gilbert is saying about Paul�s stuff. It must have been two years ago that I had a private hack at some of the Sea Changes songs as they were emerging � using a working tape of Paul�s guitar and vocals. One of these ended up on Serious Music � Plainsailing - which I took into a slightly choppy smooth jazz groove. Indeed Plundafonix opens with Paul�s final version of the same song which then segues into No Wonder � one of my favourites. I came across a version of Lord Franklin on a great John Renbourn compilation which Paul reworks on SC � it is the song which also became one of Dylan�s dreams � I think its on Freewheelin.

Circumstances meant I couldn�t get more involved in the full production but I wrote Paul a review which I seem to have lost although I know he used it a bit. It started with a sonnet by a French Symbolist. But the pure history of the thing means that I am more attached to the first CD � Rain Over the Island - which ranges over three decades. Indeed Frostie which is on Serious Music is from that CD and it is still one of my favourite tracks from that assemblage.

Santa dropped in 2 days early - Gavin Gribbon mailed me the cheque for Plundafonix today � together with his selection of current listening on 2 casettes . (I know he has bought Sea Changes too and seems pleased with it. )

Gavin is very wide ranging in his listening � for example he specialises in UK 60s recordings featuring Hammond organs. The tapes include the Hives from Sweden, the Datsuns from New Zealand, the White Stripes from the Detroit garage scene.

I am just now listening to the second side which incudes bands from the current Liverpool scene � Big Kids, The Coral, the Zutons, the Bandits. A real plus is Jeffery Lewis who is offered as part of the new Greenwich Village folk scene � a bit like Jonathan Richmond crossed with a Bob Dylan acoustic talking blues.

This is good preparation for the absolute gold - Gavin has also thrown some sweet folky Velvet Underground demos recorded in Cale�s loft in Ludlow Street Lower Manhattan in July 1965. Maybe I will make a respectful visit next February. Try to think of Venus in Furs like the with the viola acoustic and further back �kind of UK folk-club from the same period - maybe Jackson Frank or a Fairports acoustic rehearsal in Wimbledon � the occasional lyric phrase sticks out showing the specific NYC locale eg �whiplash girlchild.�

Three takes of this one. The tape also includes Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, I�m Waiting for the Man, All Tomorrow�s Parties, Heroin, Prominent Men. Amazing to think that the next day they might be jamming with Terry Riley and Lamonte Young

Parties has two part harmonies and sounds like its been influenced by Another Side of Bob Dylan. Man has a kind of Smokey Mountains feel with slide guitar, harmonica and a dialogue between Reed and Cale - suddenly catapults into a Cageian noise passage. This tape has got to go in the special archival box along with eg the tape of the ND memorial concert in Brooklyn in 1998 and the Elton John demo of Time has Told Me.

Then there�s a J Zorn favourite � the Langley Schools Music Project � seen by many as masterpieces of naive art from rural Canada done in the 1970s. G includes Space Oddity and apparently the writer regards as the best ever cover of the tune. There�s a magical bar inserted in after the first two words of the middle 8. Very disciplined use of instruments especially tremulo guitar.

Some comments from the net:

��Innocence� is a delight, an album that seems to capture nothing less than the sound of falling in love with music. And it�s enhanced by the improbable tale of how these neighborhood sessions resurfaced more than two decades after they were recorded.�

- David Segal, Washington Post, October 29, 2001

"A one-of-a-kind recording unlikely to ever be duplicated. ...Everyone, not just educators, can probably find something to cherish in the Langley Schools Music Project's 'Innocence and Despair'."

-- Kurt Rheigley, Seattle Weekly

"A remarkable achievement, which captures the beauty of the pop songs in unpredictable ways. Even with warbled harmonies and rudimentary musical accompaniment, the young students somehow bypass the hurdle of skill to get to the pure heart of the songs."

-- Joshua Klein, Chicago Tribune

"Once you recover from the kitsch of their schoolyard rendition of the Carpenters' ode to extraterrestrial life, 'Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,' you may well regard this CD as a testament to the value of creative teaching, and of music education in schools."

--Sue Cummings, RollingStone.com

"Listening to Sheila Behman's sweet solo on "Desperado" or the hopeful, hokey sentiments of "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft," it's hard not to be moved. It may be more than a little rough around the edges, but in its own way, Innocence & Despair finds perfection."

--Keith Phipps, The Onion

"This is beauty. This is truth. This is music that touches the heart in away no other music ever has, or ever could."

--John Zorn

Where on earth does he find this stuff? (Maybe its no surprise that it was Gavin who persuaded me I ought to get in touch Humphreys J during the research phase of his big project.)

Christmas e-mails from Gilbert and the Italian editor of the Pink Moon site.