There�s a lot of interesting programmes on the Radio 3 that you can call as you want to on line. I listened to some of an interview with Joe Lovano � a sax player I saw with Bill Frisell a couple of years back � also one with Richard Hamilton who invented the term �pop art�. He explains that when he coined the expression he meant the art that is out there in society in popular forms. That is how we understand �pop music�. If pop-music were like pop-art then it would only refer to those bits of �serious music� that have been brought into the academy. Progrock would be a puzzle under that interpretation.

I read some more from the Pollock book � in 1967 there was a Pollock retrospective which made a big impact on a range of people including those who were in the process of developing Minimalism and Conceptual Art. One of the consequences was the emergence of a sub branch called Anti-Form. In fact Eva Hesse who died young and has a big retrospective at the Tate Modern just now was part of this.

I did a CD for Gilbert � three Fifths interpretations � his, Robin�s and Mark�s � a BBC 500 mix, a Garage groove and a the Early Reich piece. The idea occurred that some of these pieces are following the Anti-Form path especially BBC500. You could say that in Anti-Form you throw down the gauntlet by majoring on content and challenging chance and the audience (if you manage to get one) to find the form.

Yvonne Vita and friends went skating at the rink in Somerset House � you have to book a long way in advance.

Some interesting developments in US foreign policy as far as HIV AIDS are concerned. The new leader of the Reps in the Senate - Bill Frist - is a surgeon and he has been heavily involved personally in combating the pandemic. Also on 23 December the US Trade Representative issued a call following the failure of the Doha Conference that ARVs and TB drugs etc should be allowed to be imported by poor countries cheaply from other emerging countries manufacturing them cheaply for internal use. Sounds complicated but it is important. If say Brazil makes first world patented ARVs cheaply for internal use - then currently it is not legal for Brazil to sell them to (say) Mozambique. The US is saying that even though the trade agreement isn't there at WTO, this should now be allowed. Read more on www.kwase-kwaza.org