Gilbert mailed about the two tunes I sent him � he can see a way of approaching them. I replied saying that I now have two more for him. I did one this morning in the usual way � it is a fairly short piece but I think there is enough in the core track for him to consider �so that not a great deal is required by way of additions. I have just listened to it through and still think that. Now I am just listening to the one I did yesterday.

We did more strategy today � with Barry Oxtoby working through his process for engagement with the National Workforce Development Strategy � which was very effective. Professor Barlow from Liverpool John Moores (who was at Hatfield this week) joined Keith Jordan , Richard and myself for the exercise and we took the opportunity to do a compare and contrast on this company, Automotive College and the Automotive Academy � well you might ask. The idea for this exercise was mine and I think the timing has turned out OK given that there has been so much strategy and planning/modelling work this week.

Keith has lent me a copy of a CD of Disco Punk music which is off the cover of a mag which has a reference to one of his sons in it � this son is a DJ. I played one track and I could see some readacross to the 5 NYC tunes � or so I thought.

I am indiscrete � looks like the Music for the Highveld team is going to get a professor � not a new person � a new designation.

Its good to have Robin back online � I was wondering. I feel for the situation of having a creative goal in obsessive pursuit which seems to be elusively out of reach. This is a situation I have learned to try to avoid as I just find it too unpleasant.

I spent a long time once on a piece on the Amiga � and finally got it into a state that seemed OK � I played it to Andrew Keeling once and he seemed to think it was OK too. But I resolved never to compose in that way again. I almost reached that state with one of the Ravpavs � this is not a pavanne that Ravel had composed but a development of the first phrase of the introduction to a minuet in the Tombeau de Couperin. The piece has turned out to have quiet an obsessive atmosphere � and I am reasonably satisfied with it. In fact I was thinking of seeing what Gilbert made of it. Nonetheless I thought when I did it � even though I was using a much more algorithmic technique - that I was slipping back into my old ways. Now I prefer to my purely algorithmic and intuitive.

The four pieces which are now in the NYC have really come about in something like that way. They come from thinking a lot about certain schools of music making and then going to the locations where those schools flourished and refracting that experience through the current situation.

There has to be a question mark about why write music at a time like this � and whether it is OK to contemplate naming the music in that way.

Part of line on this reflects the work I do on the News section of www.kwase-kwaza.org using it creatively as possible in the present situation. The more I do it the more possibilties I think of.

There is a really important interview just up with Richard Feacham from the Global Fund � he is asked about India.

He points out that now is the time that India wins or loses its battle against AIDS � it has a large number of HIV people who happen to be a small percentage of the total population. The important part of this is the large absolute number. If that number goes into exponential growth � plenty of evidence that this can happen � then India loses the battle and the world loses the war against AIDS. That�s his view and given his responsibilities and experience it deserves to be taken seriously.

Wars generally favour the spread of AIDS in all kinds of ways. We may be passing through a period where we find a new kind of alliance between the spread of the HIV virus and armed conflict.

So however bad the situation there are messages which need to be hammered home.