An interesting set of posts in www.kwase-kwaza.org NEWS. For example the US has announced a new domestic AIDS testing policy. Also some material about the rate of attrition of teachers in Kwa Zulu Natal in SA.

Jan and Phil came round last night to interview Yvonne and myself for a project they are doing. Their son Jonathan is currently working in an International School up near the Botswana border. He is planning to go scuba diving off the Indian Ocean coast � it�s a brilliant idea except you do have to watch out for sharks. Jan said that now Jonathan was way she had a chance to use the PC and had been into the KK site which she liked. I showed her the Frakctured site and we discussed with blogging/diaries were relevant to the issues she is researching. I lent her a copy of A N Wislon�s book on the Victorians and religious doubt.

Driving back to GFD the other night I tuned into JazzFM as soon asI was in range and up to the 7pm news they played 9 mins of 12 of Papa was Rolling Stone � Norman Whitfield producing the Temptations. Astonishing � it has made me wonder whether one can�t do a number on on Robin�s new material as a blues inflected funk minimalism in the same tradition � the latest episode.

I have started to re-read Matthew Colling�s Blimey � witty insider account of the rise of Britart in the 90s � that�s probably his best work. He deploys neo-punk right there in Ch1. I am wondering whether Slightly All the TimePart 2 might not actually be about Punk (but not about it) � about pre-punk and postpunk. Detroit is pre-punk (both rock and a kind of post Cagean do-it-yourself electronics) � then the Belleville kids kick into technological post-punk about a year after the alleged British discovery of the form.

In NYC Rhys Chatham hears the Ramones in the early 1970s and discerns them as loud post Lamont Young Minimalism � he decides that if punk can do three chords he can certainly do 2 or 1.

I also have an historical review of Punk as a Situatonist Form over three decades. If you cant rip off the Sits who can you steal from?

And then finally you get the smart neo-punk of Britart. Then there is the duality that Lester Bangs discerns in NYC between Patti Smith and Debbie Harry some time in the late 70s � in terms of performance pose � the momentary conviction against performance as studied ego-defence. Britart manages to blend the two into a meaningful but profitable whole.

Meanwhile � tales of 52nd St part 36 . Not only did Mondrian get the boogie woogie idea for his final paintings there, about six years later Stravinsky turns up � he is in Birdland which is at the corner of 52nd and Broadway. They give him a front table. Charlie Parker (with Red Rodney), comes on stage sees who is in and kicks straight into KoKo which is one of his fastest hardest most chromatic tunes. He opens his solo from a straight quote from The Firebird. Stravinsky is so enthused he hits the table hard and the drinks go flying over everyone. Must be be-bop.

Tales of London and NYC part 11. When Rauschenberg � the link between Pollock and Warhol � does the lights for the first performance of a Lamont Young piece in the UK at Sadlers Wells in 1964 he has already completed his homage to Thelonius Monk about nine years earlier. Rauschenberg inspired Cage to do Silence with a series of white paintings. After white he chose red and a mix of two and three dimensional works now known as Combines. One such is called Monk and includes a fragment of a 78 of Round Midnight. I see that the echo of these times is still on offer at Sadlers Wells where another Rauschenberg collaborator � Paul Taylor � Julliard 52-54 � is on.

I have found my yellow Coltrane book. I have mentioned the algorithmic piece I am working re Trane and the Impressionists. I have been doing this on Giant Steps (a known Drake favourite) � but the yellow book has transcriptions of another hardbop tune from the same LP � Countdown � which to be honest is easier to use in that way.

The yellow book also has the trasnciption to the Trane solo from Milestones which is one of the first I heard. I remember now that I used this in my first techno piece which is built around from one of Debussy�s Preludes. I had quite forgotten about this � I remember now that Robin the composer who lives near Sarah and Geoffery particularly liked that one.

I have dropped Gilbert�s fuzz Sp guitar part into the Dylan-based NYC piece. I was really lucky that the WAV dropped in almost exactly at the right point. I did a bit of mixing yesterday and I was rather overwhelmed at the violence of the result � what on earth did I expect? I just need to hear that a few more times and I will put it directly into the 10SS and 4 5ths file in Clean as the last piece.