Andrew mailed about Witchseason and the MM event and I replied pretty well immediately. In fact a bit of dialogue developed identifying amongst other things the need to dig deeply around �Three Hours� � and then we homed in on the Elektra label.

Paul mailed about Ray Griffin a philosopher of religion who has used his rational approach to come up with some very unusual answers � put his name into Google � say together with Santa Barbara Independent which is where he did an interview earlier this year.

The magnum opus has gone to the client � they are running with this version given that time has almost run out on them. Just as well as I feel that further effort is likely to make it worse rather than better. Various other tasks that I d rather not address which I can�t avoid. The bad news is that I have to move offices � I could do without putting everything into and out of boxes in the next 10 days. Maybe I should eat even more fruit. Strawberries last night.

Impulsively I bought a double Thin Lizzy retrospective in the supermarket with the strawberries and the white burgundy � one of my passions from the 70s (TL) � my intuition tells me that the trajectory of their music is a symptom of something grander. Maybe they even start as a folk-rock band? The burgundy is more 80s to be honest.

Great to see the rain.

I am doing a lot of work on Magic � I wonder if I will get the chance to play it at MM? I don�t usually work that hard on a chord sequence these days. I found myself even going into an extra �passing chord � that I put into the chorus eg to do the major to minor thing � the half diminished on the raised fourth. This chord is used in Night and Day at bar 9 also resolving onto the subdominant minor. This arrangement also reflects my interest (at the time I did it) in still just about Mininmalist Steve Reich

The other thing that suddenly surfaced was a Totton inspired item � the middle section of Three Dreams From the Sex War from around 1977. This is a guitar piece � which I subsequently developed for the Fire Sermon on Serious Music.

I suddenly got the drive to realise that section � with the poetry � and so I started recording to the Nomad using the U2 and Pandora (nice box). There is something at the end of the EAL record sequence which throws me off the scent and so I lost my first two attempts. But I have one � and I can load it into Wavelab and tidy it up � maybe even add another instrument. Do I have the nerve to attempt speaking the words? Maybe it�s a poem about fatherhood � an undaddy poem � torture and Frankenstein. It refers to being �the ghost in the machine� �Clutching at straws he draws the shortest one and is eaten by the rest of the crew�. Part of the Gothic drift in the 70s?

Mail from Paul W homed further into the paternal drift here.

Elektra � a history of the label has been published by Jac Holzman which looks very tempting. Probably a good source on Judy Collins and Tom Paxton.

I have started to look at Scream Across the Water � a Ghosts arrangement of a Wheeler song from the mid 70s. It relates to an episode with the stranger Dr Brian. I always rather liked the extra harmonies and riff I put into this.

Then more work on SexWarDream2 using the electroacoustic � also on a version of Old 100 � with a Daoist intercut from Night and Day � and a drunken one legged setting from Pamdora.

There should be enough pork and ginger left over from yesterday.