A Guy Called Gerald was in 808 State, then went his own way and a couple of years back he issued �Blueprint - the digital blueprint of soulful, funky grooves�. This is a double CD which allegedly has the originals unremixed on the 2nd side. I think they have been very cleverly remastered to clarify the rhythms - which G believes shaped his contribution to Techno, Drum n Bass etc. There is a mix of familiar and unfamiliar tracks. Amongst the latter is one from a blaxploitation soundtrack which Marvin Gaye did in 1972 for the forgotten film Trouble Man. MG did a lot of the writing, arranging and playing - not long after Whats Going On - just at the Detroit/LA transition in Motown. A FOPP giveaway of course at 2.5p per minute.

Bill Zurat on WFMU offers: Some pop, fumbling musicians, bedroom recordings, vocal harmonies with orchestras, elongated notes, tape hiss, one-chord wonders, analog synths + clicking drum machines, loners, breezy country, and brief cacophonous interruptions. This includes Wear Your Love Like Heaven by Donovan which I always thought was rather good (also Fatworm of Error). Makes me think the genii is really out of the bottle.

A virus arrived and forced me to my bed for 14 hours or so. Before succumbing I opened the collected JHP, also the draft North East Regional Skills Partnership which looked surprisingly good from our point of view - I also knocked out a 1000 words on the skills implications of the UK view of the future of manufacturing. Mark suggests starting with Kitchen Poems 1968 - so I am

I can see why Ricardo is excited about contacts with the great modern masters.

A great modern mistress - I was ferreting about and I came across an appreciation of GEM Anscombe - literary executor of Wittgenstein - following her death in 2001. It seems she may be the greatest female philosopher to have ever lived. Strange to think that I have heard this person lecture - even though it was decades ago. The article makes the point that sometimes it takes years of thinking to get her point, Mailed L with some consequentials including the philosophical blog of one of her contemporaries. In fact this all started because I wanted to see if I could get my mind round mathematical intuitionism. I failed mostly - except that it is an approach which avoids Platonism (real objects in an ideal world) and formalism which is just manipulating symbols. There is something in the mind that is explored in doing mathematics. If this were true of mathematics might it not also be true of music?

Paul is right about Nitin Sawhney - it has just taken me a couple of years to realise. This is not years of thinking - just inaction. There is something absolutely original in this music - amidst lyricism this is especially unusual.

I added some beats to the first short story and tried adding some abstract images. Just trying to get some grammar together.